Wildfires

Wildfires - Canada - Wildfire sparks mass exodus from Fort McMurray

All of Fort McMurray under evacuation order — 100 000 evacuated - Hospital evacuated, no injuries reported - Fire reached downtown, including at least one gas station.

All of Fort McMurray was evacuated Tuesday afternoon, in one of the largest such operations in Canadian history, after a wildfire reached town. A Flying J gas station blew up, homes are in ruins, and downtown was on fire, witnesses said.

Fort McMurray is the centre of Canada’s oil sands industry and the fire forced major operations north of town to evacuate non-essential employees. Fort McMurray is about 440 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, and only one two-lane highway connects the cities.

Headlights stretched for hundreds of kilometres through parched boreal forest as residents headed south.