High winds push Fort McMurray wildfire toward Suncor and Syncrude plants

The "beast"wildfireburning out of control around FortMcMurraywill be pushed east today, spurred by high winds, and is expected to encroach on majoroilsandsfacilities owned bySuncorandSyncrude, officials say.

Thosemassive plants north of the city, used to process bitumen, are surrounded by wide barriersof cleared firebreak and gravel, and employ their ownfirefightingcrews.

"We expect the [fire]to move east towards Suncor's facility, Northlands sawmill and potentially towards northern portions of Fort McMurray," said ChadMorrison, senior wildfire manager. "But we're still optimistic that firefighters will continue to hold those northern neighbourhoods."

The oilsands facilities themselves are unlikely to be damaged by the flames, said Morrison.

Fires burned through theoilsandsregion north of FortMcMurrayin 2011,Morrisonsaid, and the sites themselves were never in danger.

"We feel fairly confident those sites themselves will be OK," he said.

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The firegrew by70,000 hectares overnight, and now covers 355,000 hectares. The eastern front of the fire is expected to reach the Saskatchewan border later today, Morrison said.

"Mother Nature continues to be our foe in this regard and not our friend," Premier RachelNotleysaid at a news conference.

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As the fire continued to rage north of the city Monday, it forced the mandatoryevacuation of all work camps in a 60-kilometreareabetween Fort McMurray and Fort MacKay,displacing about 8,000 non-essential workers.

"The remaining staff will ensure site safety and stability, while it is safe to do so," Notley said. "Plans are in place to evacuate them, if and when needed. We expect fire growth in the area of many of these camps today."

Mostof the workers involved are employed at 12 plants forSuncorandSyncrude.

The 665-roomBlacksandLodge workcamp, about 35 kilometres from FortMcMurray, was destroyed by fire Monday night.

"Those facilities have some firetreatment in place that will hopefully prevent them seeing too much impact from the fire,"saidFairweather."Any time you see a fire getting close to anything, it's a scary situation."

About 6,000 of those people were moved to the north and could be flown to safety from landing strips owned byoilsandscompanies, should that be necessary, said Scott Long, executive director of operations for the Alberta Emergency Management Agency.

Notley said firefightingefforts will focus Tuesday on the area around those work camps and on protecting the Northlands Products sawmill, about 16 kilometresnorth of the city, which is currently threatened by the fire.

Meanwhile, firefighters in Fort McMurrayresponded to an explosion and a fire that happenedovernight.

One fire happened in theThickwoodarea, onSilinForest Road near Father PatrickMercrediCommunity School. Onefourplexwas destroyed and three other units were damaged.

An explosion happened at a home onClenellCrescent in Dickinsfield. Seven nearby homes on Dickins Drivewere also damaged. Thefires were quickly extinguished and theexplosionisstill underinvestigation.

Officials initially said the fire in the Thickwood area was an explosion, and that the explosion on Clenell Crescent occurred on McConachie Crescent. The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo corrected this information Tuesday evening.

More than 80,000 residents of FortMcMurray, theentire population, are now entering their third week away from home with no word on when they may be able to return.

Recovery efforts in the cityhave been hampered by heavy smoke. On Monday, the air quality index (normally measured on a scale of one to 10) was off the scale at 38. On Tuesday, the index dipped to13, still an extremely high risk, but was expected to rise later in the day.

"This poses a serious risk to first responders and recovery workers in the area, and so it has the potential to stall recovery efforts,"Notleysaid. "And we're seeing a bit of that already."

Notleysaid there had been plans to allow workersfrom retail shops and grocery stores back into the city to prepare for when the residents return. Those plans have now been put on hold.

The 400 workers who had been brought in to help prepare for the reopening of the Northern Lights Regional Health Centre were also forced to evacuate from the area Monday.