(Adds fire seen approaching oil sands project, details of
inferno)
By Rod Nickel and Liz Hampton
GREGOIRE LAKE, Alberta, May 7 (Reuters) - A raging Canadian
wildfire grew explosively on Saturday as hot, dry winds pushed
the blaze across the energy heartland of Alberta and threatened
to burn close to an oil sands project.
The fire that has already prompted the evacuation of all
88,000 people who lived in the city of Fort McMurray was set to
double in size on Saturday, the seventh day of what is expected
to be the costliest natural disaster in Canada's history.
Provincial officials praised evacuees for their patience
and, in a sign of how long the crisis could drag on, said the
cities of Calgary and Edmonton, many hundreds of miles to the
south, were the best place to receive longer-term support such
as medical care and emergency payments.
Firefighting officials said the inferno, propelled northeast
towards neighboring Saskatchewan by high winds and fueled by
tinder-dry forests, was set to double in size to 300,000
hectares (740,000 acres) - almost twice the size of Houston - by
the end of Saturday.
Fort McMurray is the center of Canada's oil sands region.
About half of the nation's crude output from the sands, or one
million barrels per day (bpd), had been taken offline as of
Friday, according to a Reuters estimate.
Officials said they expected the fire would burn up to the
edge of a project operated by Suncor Energy Inc SU.TO , but
noted the site and others like it were resilient to fire damage.
"They are clear of vegetation and trees ... they also have
highly trained industrial fire departments that know how to
respond to these incidents," said Chad Morrison, the province's
manager of wildfire prevention.
At least 10 oil sand operators have cut production due to
evacuations and other emergency measures. CRU/CA
Syncrude oil sands project said it would shut down its
northern Alberta operation and remove all personnel from the
site due to smoke. There was no imminent threat from the fire.
Morrison told a briefing that firefighters started tackling
the fire as soon as it was spotted south west of the city at 6
p.m. eastern (2300 GMT) last Sunday. The blaze is now expected
to reach the border with Saskatchewan, some 50 miles (80 km)
away, by the end of the day.
Cooler weather forecast for Sunday could then help keep the
blaze under control, said Morrison, predicting that without
substantial rain the fire might easily last for months.
The full extent of property losses in Fort McMurray has yet
to be determined, but one analyst estimated insurance losses
could exceed C$9 billion ($7 billion).
Alberta's Municipal Affairs Minister Danielle Larivee said
the fire was still out of control and warned residents not to
try to return.
"I know ... how very hard it is to be patient and how
difficult it is not to know so many things. I know what it's
like to wonder what is left from your home," she told the
briefing.
More than 500 firefighters are battling the blaze in and
around Fort McMurray, along with 15 helicopters and 14 air
tankers, the Alberta government said.
Police escorted another convoy of evacuees out of the oil
sands region north of Fort McMurray on Saturday, on a harrowing
journey through burned-out parts of the city and billowing
smoke.
Around 25,000 residents who initially went north found
themselves cut off in overcrowded conditions. Larivee said she
hoped the entire group would have been moved south by the end of
Saturday.
Entire neighborhoods were reduced to ruins, but most
evacuees fled without knowing the fate of their own homes. The
majority got away with few possessions, some forced to leave
pets behind.
Stephane Dumais, thumbing through his insurance documents at
an evacuation center, said he has thought about moving away.
"To me that's like giving up on my city," he said. "As long
as it takes to rebuild it, let's work together. It's not going
to be the same as it used to be."
Quite how quickly Fort McMurray can recover is unclear.
Earlier in the day Alberta premier Rachel Notley said the city's
gas had been turned off, its power grid was damaged and the
water undrinkable.
Later on, Scott Long of the Alberta emergency management
agency said planning had started for residents to return once
the city was safe.
"There is no timeline on that but I am not looking at
months," he told the briefing later on Saturday.
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Map of fire-ravaged area http://tmsnrt.rs/1rxxCHo
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