The massive wildfire in the Fort McMurray area continued to burn out of control on Sunday, despite light rain and cool temperatures sweeping across much of northern Alberta.
Fort McMurray saw about 10 minutes of showers Sunday morning, but nowhere near enough to deter the blaze, CTV’s Peter Akman reported from the area.
Environment Canada is forecasting a low of 6 C in Fort McMurray and a 70 per cent chance of showers Sunday evening.
However, the cold front will likely be preceded by strong winds, gusting up to 70 km/h that could feed the fire and cause it to grow in size.
“We need heavy rain. Showers won’t be enough,” said Chad Morrison with Alberta Wildfire on Saturday.
“The good news is with this system other parts of the province will see some rain and that will free up more firefighters to assist us,” he added.
At a news conference Sunday afternoon, Premier Rachel Notley confirmed the fire had grown to more than 161,000 hectares, a massive stretch of land nearly 13 times the size of the City of Vancouver.
While the inferno continues to burn northeast away from Fort McMurray, officials said it spread at a slower pace overnight than originally expected.
More than 80,000 people have been forced to flee Fort McMurray after a mandatory evacuation was called on Wednesday due to the rapidly growing blaze.
So far, about 1,600 homes and other structures have been destroyed in Fort McMurray.
At least six surface mines in the oil-producing region have been closed or reduced productions. On Saturday, Syncrude issued a statement that all operations at it's Mildred Lake site had been shut-down and all workers evacuated as a precaution.
More than 500 firefighters continue to battle the blaze in and around Fort McMurray, along with 15 helicopters, 14 air tankers and 88 other pieces of equipment.
In addition, more firefighters were expected in the coming days to help relieve crews currently on the ground.
With files from CTV’s Jill Macyshon, Dario Balca and The Canadian Press
