Oilsands camp destroyed by fire, another threatened and thousands evacuated from area

Courtesy: John Marasse

In what officials expected to be an active fire day on Monday, a massive fire near Fort McMurray grew to the north of the city, reaching one oilsands camp, and threatening others – prompting the evacuation of thousands of workers.

On Tuesday, officials confirmed that one camp, called Blacksand Executive Lodge, sustained significant damage when it was breached by wildfires burning north of Fort McMurray.

Officials at Horizon North Logistics Inc. said at about 10 p.m. Monday, the Blacksand Executive Lodge, along with a number of other lodges locate don Aostra Road, was evacuated under a mandatory evacuation order.

The company announced late Tuesday morning that the 665 room facility sustained “significant damage” due to the wildfire.

Provincial officials said Noralta Lodge has been evacuated, that camp is considered to be at risk.

That destruction came after 8,000 people were eventually evacuated from the work camps on Monday as the massive wildfire – at larger facilities like Syncrude and Suncor, some critical staff remained, and officials said Tuesday that those facilities are not threatened by the fire.

“This area will be the primary focus of suppression efforts today by firefighters, and as I have already said weather conditions will make this work extremely challenging,” Premier Rachel Notley said.

Chad Morrison with Alberta Wildfire said many of the oilsands facilities are resilient to wildfire.

“The issues are the industrial camps, the Northlands facility at this point, in the past experience has taught us that because they are clear of vegetation and have lots of gravel on site and have industrial firefighting service on site, we are working closely with them, we are confident the sites are okay,” Morrison said.

The province said the massive fire grew significantly overnight, was at more than 355,000 hectares – up from 285,000 hectares on Monday.

The fire, which has been slowly nearing the Saskatchewan border for the last few days, was expected to reach the border at some point on Tuesday.

With files from Shanelle Kaul