Municipal and provincial officials will be providing an update on the out-of-control wildfire south of Fort McMurray on Friday morning.
Sandy Bowman, mayor of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, fire Chief Jody Butz and Josee St-Onge, Alberta Wildfire’s information officer, will provide an update on the fire. The time has been delayed to 10:15 a.m.
As of 6:30 p.m. Thursday, the fire was located 5.5 kilometres from the Fort McMurray landfill, which is just outside the community’s south boundary, and 4.5 kilometres from the intersection of highways 63 and 881, according to the last update from Alberta Wildfire.
Wildfire officials says the fire, which is burning underground, will take weeks or months to fully extinguish.
Around 6,600 residents of the city were ordered to evacuate Tuesday, when the fire nearly doubled in size. They are being told not to return home until after the long weekend.
The most recent aerial scan estimated the fire’s size to be 19,820 hectares.
A fire ban and off-highway vehicle restriction are in effect for the Fort McMurray Forest Area.
According to Alberta Wildfire, the cause of this wildfire remains under investigation.