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The wildfire raging through northern Alberta has swelled in size and surged north of Fort McMurray, consuming an evacuated oil sands camp on Tuesday and threatening several other facilities in the region. “It continues to burn out of control,” said Rachel Notley, the Alberta premier, one day after the shifting fire forced the evacuation of 8,000 non-essential staff from more than a dozen camps and sites in the oil sands region. Tinder-dry conditions and temperatures in the mid-20s Celsius helped fuel the wildfire’s growth to 355,000 hectares on Tuesday – a significant jump from 285,000 hectares one day earlier. “Mother nature continues to be our foe in this regard and not our friend,” Notley said. Winds pushed the fire into an area dotted with oil sands work camps, completely destroying a 665-bed camp belonging to Horizon North Logistics just hours after the area was ordered evacuated. The company said every staff member was safe and accounted for.
Two nearby camps for oil sands workers – the 3,700-room Noralta Lodge and 360-room Birch Creek – were being carefully monitored as the flames approached. “We expect fire growth in the area of many of these camps today,” Notley said. Winds were expected to shift the fire east towards the Syncrude and Suncor Energy oil sands facilities. Officials described both facilities as resilient to the risk of fire, pointing to the wide firebreaks surrounding both sites and their private crews of highly trained firefighters. Suncor said on Tuesday that it had begun shuttering its base plant operations as a precautionary measure. Hot spots continued to flare in the city of Fort McMurray – the oil sands hub ordered evacuated two weeks ago as flames flickered in the trees on its outskirts. More than 88,000 people hurriedly fled, with many of them now scattered across Alberta and the rest of the country.
Plans to allow evacuees to return to were being challenged by the continued threat of the fire as well as the heavy blanket of smoke that stubbornly hovers in the region. On Monday the air quality index, normally measured on a scale of 1 to 10, had soared to 38. By Tuesday it had dropped to 13 but officials warned it would likely rise again and hamper recovery efforts in the city. Notley said she hoped to offer residents – who are now entering their third week since being evacuated – a tentative timeline on re-entry later in the week. Safety remains the primary concern, with two separate explosions igniting fires and damaging roughly 10 homes on Tuesday. The cause of the explosions was under investigation. “When you start turning on a switch ... in a city of 90,000 people, sometimes stuff happens,” said Notley. “What those two incidents last night demonstrated to us is that’s the right way to go, that we need to make sure we’ve got everything cued up before people come back in because we want to make sure it’s safe.”
The fire cut a path of destruction through Fort McMurray, destroying entire neighbourhoods but mostly sparing critical infrastructure like the hospital, water treatment plant and airport. About 2,400 structures were consumed by the fire, but about 90% of the city was left intact. The wildfire was expected to reach the neighbouring province of Saskatchewan on Tuesday, said Chad Morrison, Alberta’s manager of wildfire prevention. The lack of rain in the forecast suggested little relief was in sight for firefighters struggling to gain control over the blaze, he added. As the fire raged out of control in the region, production of oil sands crude dropped by roughly a million barrels of oil per day. In recent days oil sands workers had begun returning to the camps north of Fort McMurray in the hope of ramping up production. Monday’s evacuation and the volatile nature of the fire have raised concerns that the region may suffer a prolonged production outage.
Alberta wildfire destroys oil sands work camp as 8,000 staff are evacuated
Plans to bring back more than 1 million barrels a day of lost production in Canada’s oil sands are being delayed as wildfires sweeping across northern Alberta threaten operations again, prompting Suncor Energy Inc. to evacuate three sites it was restarting. The nation’s largest oil producer flew employees from its MacKay River, Firebag and base plant sites as it shut down the facilities days after beginning the process of resuming output. The wildfire that’s raged for more than two weeks circled back north of Fort McMurray toward the main operations in the oil sands, the world’s third-largest reserves.
About 8,000 workers were removed from lodging facilities as the blaze grew to about 3,550 square kilometers (1,370 square miles), Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said Tuesday. That’s an area bigger than Rhode Island. Horizon North Logistics Inc.’s Blacksand lodge, a work camp about 40 kilometers (24 miles) northwest of Fort McMurray that serves Suncor and Syncrude Canada Ltd. sites, some of the largest oil-sands facilities, was destroyed by fire, Notley said. “Mother Nature continues to be our foe in this regard and not our friend,” Notley said in a briefing. Westerly winds were forecast to push the fire closer to Suncor and Syncrude oil-sands plants, though both facilities are very resilient, she said. “We expect fire growth in the area of many of these camps.”
Production Cuts
The delay to restarts is another setback for Canada’s economy and energy industry in what is already estimated to be the country’s costliest disaster, following the evacuation of more than 80,000 people from their homes earlier this month as entire neighborhoods in Fort McMurray were razed. Oil-sands output has been reduced by about 1.2 million barrels a day, according to estimates from the Conference Board of Canada. The research group forecasts that 14 days of production cuts represents a hit of about C$985 million ($763 million) to the Alberta economy.
Suncor is focused on moving people out of the oil-sands region, Sneh Seetal, a spokeswoman, said by phone. The MacKay River, Firebag and base plant mine sites together have a capacity to produce about 740,000 barrels a day. Syncrude, a joint venture controlled by Suncor, also evacuated workers because of the fire threat, Will Gibson, a spokesman, said in an e-mail. Syncrude’s Mildred Lake and Aurora mines together have a capacity to produce about 407,000 barrels a day.
Rain Forecast
The fire is now 4,830 sq km (1865 sq miles) and has expanded east. It has burned about 7.8 sq km (3 sq miles) in the province so far, the CBC reports. The nearest village is more than 30 km from the border, but smoke and ash could be a concern for the town of La Loche, Saskatchewan. There are currently nine fires in Saskatchewan. If the fire or air quality does not worsen, evacuees from fire-ravaged Fort McMurray may start to return home as soon as 1 June, Alberta premier Rachel Notley has said. The timeline for more than 80,000 people returning to their homes is "conditional", she said on Wednesday. The re-entry plan will allow for some residents to come back 1 June and all residents to return by 15 June. In order for the timeline to be followed, five conditions must be met, Ms Notley said.
Fort McMurray after damage
* The fire can no longer be an "imminent threat" and air quality must be safe
* The hospital must be open and able to provide basic services
* Fire, police and ambulance services must be restored
* Roads must be open to traffic and natural gas and electricity must be restored
* There must be access to food, potable water, banks and pharmacies
Ms Notley suggested residents bring food and drinking water, portable coolers, boots, flashlights, batteries and cameras back with them. Schools are not expected to reopen until September. "Let me be clear that this re-entry plan is voluntary. It's a matter of allowing those people who wish to return on a voluntary basis to do so in a phased and cautious way. We anticipate that many people will not return as early as June 1, and we will support them in that decision," said Ms Notley. She warned that the date would be pushed back if conditions change. The fire began on 3 May and destroyed more than 2,400 homes and buildings and displaced thousands of people. Ms Notley has assured that those with no homes to return to will be helped by the government.
Canadian wildfire crosses border into Saskatchewan - BBC News
Now in its third week, the fire's proximity to the billions of dollars worth of oil equipment, flammable liquids, and extraction sites had people fearful that the flames, which can jump as far as more than a kilometre with gusts of wind, could do catastrophic damage to critical infrastructure. Dozens of safety workers and industrial firefighters are working at places like Syncrude and Suncor Energy's upgrading facilities north of Fort McMurray surrounded by flames burning to the edges of the oil sands, facing temperatures running as high as 1,100 Celsius (2,000 Fahrenheit).
The heavy bitumen in the oil sands themselves is not flammable, but the facilities and people inside are at risk. “The most harrowing moments were when we first arrived on scene, dealing with these forest fires growing on you, flames jumping fifty feet in the air," said Aron Harper, 35, a firefighter and emergency medical technician employed by Suncor, who lives in Fort McMurray, Alberta province's main oil hub. "We were yelling at guys to get out of there because the thing was growing so fast. I’ve never seen a fire grow that fast in my life.”
Firefighters do not measure forest fires by temperature, but by a measure known as "head fire intensity," said Travis Fairweather, Alberta wildfire information officer. It is calculated as the rate of heat energy released over time at the front of the fire, and this fire at times reached five times a level considered extreme, he said. Almost half of Alberta's 2,351 firefighters have been assigned to Fort McMurray and oil companies have drafted industrial firefighting specialists to protect operations in the area, where about one million barrels of capacity has been shuttered. (Graphic:Canada wildfire shuts crude capacity)
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Some Fort McMurray residents are to return home for the first time since a huge wildfire that displaced 90,000 people in north-west Canada. Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said the conditions needed for the return of the residents had been met. The first residents will return on Wednesday, although three neighbourhoods remain off-limits. Authorities will continue assessing conditions daily, and the plans could change if conditions worsen. CBC reported that five conditions had to be met for people to return, including the restoration of critical services such as police and healthcare.
Air quality is expected to continue improving in the city thanks to cooler weather and expected rain. "The resilience and determination of the people of Fort McMurray continues to impress me every single day," Ms Notley wrote on Facebook. "I know that even in the face of this challenging and frustrating news, that they will remain strong, resilient, and together." She said 500 homes in the Abasand, Beacon Hill and Waterways neighbourhoods had been deemed unsafe for habitation, meaning about 9,000 people will have to stay out of Fort McMurray for the immediate future. A boil-water advisory notice remains in place and the province is warning certain at-risk groups to be careful about coming back. "To residents choosing to return this week, I ask you to not go home without a plan," Ms Notley said. "Bring food, water and any other supplies needed for the next two weeks."
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police will be patrolling the city as residents start their return. "When they say to bring 14 days worth of food and water, they mean it," said Jim Mandeville, an official with disaster clean-up group FirstOnSite. "And when they say people with respiratory conditions shouldn't come up here, they mean it - and they have a really good reason why. It is not a clean, safe, normal environment that you're walking into.'' The fire began on 3 May and destroyed more than 2,400 homes and buildings. It shut off nearly a quarter of Canada's oil production as it approached Alberta's oil sands. The fire is still burning and covers about 580,000 hectares (5,800 sq km), including part of the neighbouring province of Saskatchewan, but is not expected to grow significantly.
Fort McMurray fire: First residents to return home - BBC News
