CALGARY, Alberta — Firefighters made progress against a wildfire in the Fort McMurray region of Alberta on Thursday as a shift in winds pushed it away from communities and oil sands facilities.
The massive blaze covered 1.2 million acres, up from 1.1 million acres on Wednesday. On Thursday, it moved across the border to the neighboring province of Saskatchewan, but Alberta wildfire officer Chad Morrison said cooler weather and rain would aid efforts to get it under control.
“I can report that we saw a trace of rain this morning, so that’s actually helped our firefighting efforts,” he added.
Morrison said the burned area equals the total consumed in last year’s entire fire season.
The blaze, which hit Fort McMurray in early May, surged north Monday. It forced the evacuation of 8,000 oil sands workers, destroyed a work camp and prolonged a shutdown that has cut Canadian oil output by a million barrels a day.
Morrison said the fire burned near Suncor Energy’s base plant and the Syncrude facility on Wednesday, but fire breaks held and the threat has diminished.
The joint-venture Syncrude project told customers to expect no further crude shipments for May, trading sources said Thursday, extending a force majeure on crude production from earlier in the month.
Syncrude spokesman Will Gibson declined to comment on deliveries and said the company did not know how long the situation would last.
“We are not making any oil and will not have forecasts for some time,” he said.
The fire destroyed a 665-room lodge for oil sands workers on Tuesday, but officials on Thursday said there was no further threat to facilities. Even so, a mandatory evacuation order remains in place at 19 work camps north of Fort McMurray.
The latest evacuations were a setback for producers, suggesting production may be suspended for longer than companies and analysts had previously anticipated.
Some of the 90,000 evacuees who fled Fort McMurray as the massive blaze breached the city may be allowed to return as soon as June 1, officials said Wednesday, if air quality improves and other safety conditions are met.
The province’s plan to gradually allow residents back into the city offered hope but also trepidation.
“It’s exciting news but you are also scared to see what you get when you get back,” Fort McMurray resident Ria Dickason said, adding that she was concerned about smoky air.
The air quality health index, which usually stands between 1 and 10, was at 3 on Thursday morning but expected to rise back above 10 on Thursday afternoon and Friday. On Wednesday, it touched 51, halting restoration work in the city.