Canada fires now advancing more slowly

Fort Mcmurray (Canada): Raging forest fires that prompted the evacuation of an entire Canadian city were advancing more slowly thanks to a change in the weather and oil facilities have escaped major damage, officials have said.

In other good news, the amount of land charred was less than originally feared. And the last of 25,000 people trapped north of Fort McMurray in Alberta province have now been evacuated in road convoys through the ruined oil city.

Alberta premier Rachel Notley and other officials said the fires raging for days around Fort McMurray were moving "much, much more slowly" thanks to a bit of rain and cooler temperatures.

Authorities had expressed fear the fire could spread east to Saskatchewan province. But Notley said the worst fears from Saturday had not been realised, at least not yet.

The fire's eastern edge was still 40 kilometres Saskatchewan and estimates of the area destroyed have been lowered from 2,000 square kilometres to about 1,600.

The ruthless blaze, fanned by high winds and fueled by tinder-dry conditions, devastated Fort McMurray and the region around it. The city was home to 100,000 until it was evacuated last week as flames burned homes to the ground amid scenes of panic and mass exodus.

Chad Morrison, senior wildfire manager for Alberta, said yesterday that "with a little help from mother nature and a bit of a break in the weather," along with the hard work of some 500 firefighters, most fire lines in Fort McMurray had been contained.

The threat to oil-sand mines north of the city had also diminished, at least for now, he said.

Morrison said fire lines had moved away from the work sites of Nexen, a unit of the Chinese group CNOOC, after inflicting only minor damage.

Work sites of the Suncor petroleum group had also been spared.

Morrison said firefighters hoped that rains and cooler temperatures predicted for today and winds from the west, gusting up to 60 kilometres per hour (35 mph) should help keep the flames away from the petroleum work camps in coming days.

Even as fellow Canadians rally to provide them succor and support, thousands of evacuees who fled the fire are coming to grips with the likelihood that they will be unable to see their homes anytime soon -- assuming the dwellings are still standing at all.

Hundreds of firefighters, exhausted and demoralised after days vainly battling a blaze they grimly refer to as "the beast," acknowledged that they will probably have to wait for the fire to burn itself out.

The Alberta oil sands are a vital part of the regional economy.

With huge swathes of forest and brush, as well as whole neighbourhoods of the city, turned to ash -- an area three-quarters the size of Luxembourg -- firefighters battling the blaze are concentrating on saving vital infrastructure, including telecommunications, electric grids, gas and water lines.