Fort McMurray wildfire grows to 85,000 hectares

Premier Rachel Notley held a press conference on Thursday to update the public on the situation in Fort McMurray.

On Wednesday there were a total of 18 new fire starts province-wide, bringing the total of wildfires burning in the province to 49, with seven currently burning out of control. According to officials, the cause of the Fort McMurray wildfire is still under investigation, but investigators are not ruling out lightning caused as it appears the fire started in a remote forested area.

Mental health workers are hitting the ground in Edmonton and Calgary, Lac La Biche, Fort MacKay, and Firebag to help those who have been evacuated from the communities in Northern Alberta. There are still roughly 25,000 people evacuated north of Fort McMurray and on Thursday the province will work to move these people south. By Thursday afternoon officials hope to conduct air evacuations to move 8,000 people to Edmonton and Calgary.

Teams will work to reopen the highway and truck gasoline north to those in need and work to move people by ground in a controlled effort.

The wildfire has grown to 85,000 hectares in size and fire fighters are expecting another challenging day as low humidity remains and strong winds up to 40 km/hr are expected. The fire grew rapidly again on Wednesday as winds were reported at 70 km/hr and at one point the fire created its own weather system, which included dry lightning. There are more than 1,100 firefighters on the ground including well over 200 structural fire fighters in Fort McMurray.

Late Wednesday evening the airport was threatened by the wildfire but due to what experts call “momentous efforts” the airport only suffered mild damage. The airport has been reopened to aviation, and limited use, but supplies will be able to land in the area.

The crews have not yet called in military support to help, although they are standing by and ready to help where needed. Department of National Defense (DND) air crafts have been used thus far and will continue to be used to help transport people out of the northern areas.

There is no update on structure damage as fire fighters have not had an opportunity to survey the area.

Fire fighters will once again concentrate of protecting life and critical infrastructure on Thursday. The fire has moved into the forested area around the city, with the majority of new starts in the southeast area.