A massive wildfire around the oil sands hub of Fort McMurray, Alberta, moved towards energy production facilities on Tuesday.
The fire jumped a critical firebreak area where plants and trees had been removed to stop its spread late Monday, moving north of Fort McMurray into oil sand camp areas. Some 4,000 workers were evacuated in the heavily forested northern part of the province.
The uncontrolled blaze covered 285,000 hectares (704,000 acres), officials said Monday and was moving 30 to 40 meters (98 to 131 feet) per minute.
"When you have this kind of extreme fire behaviour it doesn't matter what tankers you put in front of it, it doesn't matter how many helicopters, Mother Nature is going to want to continue to move that fire forward.''
TransAlta Corp's Poplar Creek cogeneration power plant, which provides power to Suncor, was also shut by early Tuesday due to the wildfire.
As of the time of writing, the wildfires had expanded to almost 1,100 square miles and is expected to spread.
Wildfires continued their devastating advance on Tuesday, leading authorities to order more evacuations in Canada's oil sands region surrounding the city of Fort McMurray.
In total, about 8,000 people were forced to leave some 20 camps and facilities north of the city in Alberta province due to thick smoke and flareups.
The evacuation order was issued late Monday (0200 GMT Tuesday) for the area connected by a 50 kilometer (31 mile) stretch of highway between Fort McMurray and the town of Fort MacKay, in the heart of the oil sands.
"Several camps are affected by this evacuation. Approximately 8,000 people impacted," the statement read.
In their latest bulletin, fire officials reported 19 active fires in Alberta, four more than announced on Monday.
Suncor has ordered the evacuation of thousands of oil workers in Alberta, and Enbridge’s oil sands transportation terminal is under threat as wildfires continue to push through the province.
On Monday, Suncor said it had ordered the evacuation of 8,000 workers from its oil sands camps in the Wood Buffalo municipality and shut down operations as authorities expanded the evacuation zone north of Fort McMurray, where the wildfires started over two weeks ago.
Syncrude Canada has also shut down its oil sands mine and processing plant due to smoke on the site, located north of Fort McMurray. The company said that it evacuated all personnel, some 4,800 of them.
Earlier Monday, officials warned the air quality in the Fort McMurray area was dangerously poor. The air quality health index is normally one to 10, with 10 being the worst, but the reading on Monday morning was at 38.
Karen Grimsrud, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, said they expect the air quality readings to remain in the extreme range for the next couple of days.
She said workers in the area should be wearing respirators.
The Rural Municipality of Wood Buffalo said the fire is moving 33 to 44 yards per minute and is expected to burn 3.7 miles in two hours. Officials say thick smoke is also posing a hazard.
Enbridge’s Cheecham oil sands terminal is battling the spread of the fire less than one kilometer from the facility. The terminal is approximately 47 miles southeast of Fort McMurray, also in the Wood Buffalo region.
linkThis appears to be 2 different fires one north of Ft McMurray, the other southeast.
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The level of injustice and wrong you endure is directly determined by how much you quietly submit to. Even to the point of extinction.