Fort McMurray oil sands camps evacuate 8,000 workers

Some 8,000 workers at oil sands camps north of the fire-ravaged Canadian city of Fort McMurray were ordered to evacuate as authorities continued the battle to bring wildfires under control.

The mandatory evacuation zone was extended to 30 miles north of the city.

Suncor, one of the major operators working on Canada’s oil sands, issued a news release late on Monday confirming it had “started a staged and orderly shutdown of our base plant operations” and that personnel were being transported to work camps further north. It stressed there has been no damage to Suncor infrastructure.

The workers had been trying to restart oil production at the facilities after they were halted by the fires and by the need to house a flood of people from Fort McMurray seeking safety. Those people have since been transferred further south.

“Suncor has enhanced fire mitigation and protection around all of its facilities,” said the release.

“When it is safe to do so, we will continue implementing our restart plans.”

The fire destroyed more than 2,400 structures in Fort McMurray, although firefighters managed to save essential infrastructure in the oil sands capital, including the hospital, water treatment plant and the airport.

Mass evacuation
The entire population of Fort McMurray, about 90,000 people, was forced to flee nearly two weeks ago as the uncontrolled wildfire raged through some neighbourhoods and destroyed about 15 per cent of structures.

On Monday, the blaze continued to burn uncontrolled, now covering 285,000 hectares , officials said.

By Monday evening it was moving 30 to 40 meters every minute and had jumped a critical firebreak north of the city to push into the oil sand camp areas.

“When you have this type of extreme fire behaviour, it doesn’t matter what tankers you put in front of it, or how many helicopters, mother nature is going to continue to move that fire forward,” wildfire manager Chad Morrison said.

Firefighters have managed to protect much of Fort McMurray but evacuated residents are still not allowed to return to their homes, partly because of hotspots around the community.

No timeline for residents' return
Alberta premier Rachel Notley said there was still no timeline on when residents could return but she hoped to have more information by the end of the week.

Officials said the air quality in the city had deteriorated, with the air quality health index, usually measured on a scale of 1-10, at 38 on Monday.

“This has delayed the re-entry of additional response personnel as well as vehicle retrieval efforts,” Ms Notley said. “It is clear that this is something that could potentially delay recovery work and the return to the community.”

Canadian finance minister Bill Morneau told CBC News the Fort McMurray fire would be a challenge to the economy as well as a human challenge, but he had no price tag yet on how much the disaster would cost the federal government.

“We’re obviously going to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people in Fort McMurray and rebuild the city,” he said.

Agencies