The Toronto Sun reports employees from Shell Canada’s Muskeg River and Jackpine mines near Fort MacKay were evacuated late Thursday night as wildfires continue to rage in that part of Alberta, Canada. Despite cooler weather and scattered showers on Friday 290 forest firefighters from Alberta, B.C. and the Northwest Territories are still fighting out of control blazes in the Richardson area 60 km north of Fort McMurray where 354,000 hectares have burned.
Imperial Oil and Shell Canada say they’re working with the government and other oil sands operators to monitor the fire and smoke conditions in the area and Syncrude Canada says all of its staff at its operations in that part of the province are still continuing to work.
Close to 1,000 firefighters are fighting 18 wildfires across Alberta that have popped up within the last 24 hours, says the provincial government. Two of those fires are out of control.