The entire population of Fort McMurray, Canada, has been ordered to evacuate as a wildfire whipped by winds engulfed homes and sent ash raining down on people.
More than 80,000 residents of the Alberta oil sands city were ordered to flee after an earlier order that had applied to nearly 30,000 people, mostly on the south side, was extended to tens of thousands more as flames continued to make their way into the city.
Panicked residents packed Highway 63, the only route out of the city, as flames jumped across the road.
The wildfire, whipped by unpredictable winds on a day of high temperatures, worsened dramatically in a short time and many had little notice to flee.
Alberta premier Rachel Notley said officials were doing all they could to ensure everyone's safety and were looking into a possible airlift for residents with health issues.
Scott Long of Alberta Emergency Management said the flames burned a number of structures.
Carol Christian's home was in one of the neighbourhoods under the order to leave. She said it was scary as she drove to an evacuation centre with her son and cat.
"When you leave it's an overwhelming feeling to think that you'll never see your house again," she said.
"It was absolutely horrifying when we were sitting there in traffic. You look up and then you watch all the trees candle-topping up the hills where you live and you're thinking, 'Oh my God. We got out just in time'."
The main road into Fort McMurray was closed at the southern entrance to the city after flames jumped the road. Pictures posted on Twitter showed long lines of traffic and skies darkened by thick smoke as flames licked the edges of roads.
Fort McMurray is the capital of Alberta's oil sands region. The Alberta oil sands are the third largest reserves of oil in the world behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau tweeted that he spoke with Ms Notley and the government stood ready to help. He urged residents to follow evacuation orders.
Oil sands work camps were being pressed into service to house evacuees as the raging wildfire emptied the city. Most oil sands projects are well north of the community, while the worst of the flames were on the city's south side.
Officials were also evacuating non-essential staff at Suncor's base plant, 18 miles away and one of the closest facilities to the city. Spokesman Paul Newmarch said evacuees were moving into the plant's work camps.
Will Gibson, a spokesman for Syncrude, which also has a plant north of the town, was himself one of the evacuees heading north away from the flames.
He said he had to flee his neighbourhood via a grass embankment because the fire had already cut off the road at both ends.
"I left my neighbourhood and there were houses on fire," he said. "I don't know if and when I'll be going back."
The large work camps can normally accommodate thousands.
A local radio reporter said a trailer park that had been evacuated on Monday was on fire and flames were advancing towards businesses.
"It's chaos on the roads. People are panicking. It's gridlock on the roads. Flames are right next to a gas station," said Carina Van Heerde of KAOS.
Crews had seemed to be making progress controlling the blaze, burning since the weekend, but the situation worsened quickly on Tuesday. By mid-afternoon people from three neighbourhoods were told to leave immediately.
Unseasonably hot temperatures combined with dry conditions have transformed the boreal forest in much of Alberta into a tinder box. The wildfire threat ranged from very high to extreme in different areas.
The Alberta government banned all open fires except in designated camping sites in forested areas due to the threat. There were about 30 fires burning in the province.
The province was calling in more reinforcements to Fort McMurray, including 100 more firefighters and a giant helicopter that can dump more than 500 gallons of water at a time.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here