The wildfire burning southwest of Fort McMurray grew west and northeast on Monday. …The last update on the wildfire, which is being called MWF-017, was that it was 6,572 hectares and 16 kilometres southwest of the city as of 9:30 a.m. The cause is still being investigated. Two helicopters equipped with night vision will battle the wildfire overnight with their water buckets. Alberta Wildfire spokesperson Christie Tucker hopes scattered showers, and cooler and wetter overnight conditions will slow the wildfire. An evacuation warning is still active for people in Fort McMurray, Anzac, Fort McMurray 468 First Nation, Gregoire Lake Estates, Saprae Creek Estates and Rickards Landing Industrial Park. …Wildfire conditions in most of Alberta’s north range from high to extreme risk. Tucker says there are 45 wildfires burning across the province. Between Friday morning and Sunday evening, 18 new wildfires sparked across Alberta.

FORT NELSON, British Columbia — An intense wildfire could reach a town in western Canada this week, fire experts and officials warned, based on forecasts of winds that have fueled the out-of-control blaze, which has forced the evacuation of thousands of people. The British Columbia Wildfire Service said the wildfire was burning 2½ kilometers (around 1½ miles) northwest of Fort Nelson. More than 4,700 people have evacuated after an order was issued on Friday. …Cliff Chapman, the service’s director of operations, said they were fortunate that stronger winds didn’t materialize overnight, but said that winds were expected to continue to blow west over the next day or two. …Fire crews and emergency workers were preparing for a “last stand” if the fire advances into the town, said Rob Fraser, mayor of the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality based in Fort Nelson.

A wildfire that’s threatening the northwestern Manitoba community of Cranberry Portage hasn’t gotten bigger, but first responders could still be fighting it weeks from now, a provincial wildfire official said. The entire population of Cranberry Portage evacuated Saturday as a massive blaze marched toward the community, devouring trees on thousands of hectares of land. Earl Simmons, the director of the Manitoba Wildfire Service, said the fire hasn’t moved or gotten smaller. Though the province said Sunday it was about 35,000 hectares in size, it is actually about 31,500 hectares (or 77,838 acres), after subtracting the space that bodies of water take up. …”We could be fighting that fire a month from now,” Simmons told reporters outside his department’s office on Monday afternoon. …In his 40 years of experience with wildfires, Simmons has “never seen a fire move like this fire moved,” thanks to high winds and extremely dry conditions in the area.

The evacuated northeast B.C. municipality of Fort Nelson is bracing for strong, persistent westerly winds Monday that could push the rampaging Parker Lake wildfire closer to town. About 4,700 people have been told to evacuate in Fort Nelson and Fort Nelson First Nations, due to the fast-growing fire burning about 2½ kilometres northwest of city limits. “The next 48 hours will be a challenging situation for the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality given forecast ongoing westerly winds and extremely dry and volatile fuels in the area,” said Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma in a news conference on Monday. “We may begin to see volatile wildfire activity later this afternoon.” …Crews are also using heavy equipment and putting in fire guards to slow the spread of the fire. Strong winds expected overnight did not materialize, and the size of the fire held steady into Monday, he noted. 

Related coverage in Business in Vancouver by the Associated Press: Some people stay as blaze with ‘extreme fire behaviour’ singes Fort Nelson, B.C.