Coming rains could slow Fort McMurray's 'beast' wildfire
Showers in the forecast are a welcome change for crews holding fire near oilsands sites
Long-awaited rain showers could soon dampen the seemingly insatiable wildfire choking Fort McMurray.
Firefighters battling flames that jumped Highway 63 a few kilometres north of the city felt cool water on their faces Thursday morning, as the first raindrops fell. It was a welcome change after days of vice-grip dryness, and smoke clouds filled with dust and heat and ash.
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"It's still too early to tell what this bit of rain is going to do," said fire information officer Travis Fairweather, in the cautious tone officials involved with this disaster have learned to use when talking about their foe: a wildfire that has proven staunchly unpredictable and uncontrollable.
Environment Canada's forecast for Fort McMurray Thursday called for a 60 per cent chance of rain and a high of 11 C. Showers are expected on Saturday and Sunday, too.
"If we can get more than one day and some really high amounts of rain, we'll be able to get this fire under control at some point," Fairweather said.
Holding it back
By Thursday morning, the wildfires had consumed roughly 505,000 hectares, a burn area larger than the total razed by fires across Alberta during last year's entire fire season. Tongues of the fire have also crossed the Alberta border into Saskatchewan.
The blaze marched north this week, closer to Fort McMurray's famous oilsands. Firefighters have been busy, and reported no further damages overnight to oil facilities or camps.
Crews at Noralta Lodge, a 3,500-room temporary housing unit for oilsands workers, continued to hold back flames that burned around the edges of its facility about 30 kilometres north of the Fort McMurray townsite.
The wildfire destroyed the 655-room Blacksand Executive Lodge Tuesday, and triggered mandatory evacuations from oilsands camps and facilities closest to the northern edge of the townsite. The province estimates some 6,000 workers left the area this week, mainly employees and contractors for Suncor.
Officials say fires burned vegetation at the edges of oilsands mines for Syncrude and Suncor, but reported no new damage to those facilities Thursday morning.
A finger of wildfire that snaked northward up the west side of Highway 63 this week got so hot it flung firebrand pieces across the road Wednesday afternoon, sparking spot fires at the south boundary of the Northlands sawmill.
Staff at the mill told CBC News in an interview that helicopters and firefighters have held the flames away.
with files from Wallis Snowdon