Fort McMurray Fire.                                 

On May 1, 2016, a wildfire began southwest of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. On May 3, it swept through the community, destroying more than 1,600 homes and buildings and forcing the largest wildfire evacuation in Alberta's history.The fire continues to spread across northeast Alberta, and has impacted Canada's oil sand operations. The wildfire may become the most costly disaster in Canadian history. A local state of emergency was initially declared May 1 at 9:57 p.m. (03:57 UTC May 2) with the Centennial Trailer Park and the neighbourhoods of Prairie Creek and Gregorio under a mandatory evacuation. The evacuation orders for the two neighbourhoods were reduced to a voluntary stay-in-place order by the night of May 2 as the fire moved southwest and away from the area. However, the mandatory evacuation order was reinstated and expanded to 12 neighbourhoods on May 3 at 5:00 p.m. (23:00 UTC), and to the entirety of Fort McMurray by 6:49 p.m. (00:49 UTC May 4). A further order covering the nearby communities of Anzac, Gregorio Lake Estates, and Fort McMurray First Nation was issued at 9:50 p.m. on May 4 (03:50 UTC May 5). It has been reported that 88,000 people were successfully evacuated, with no reported fatalities or injuries; however, two people were killed in a vehicular collision during the evacuation.

On May 4, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo reported the communities of Beacon Hill, Abasand and Waterways had suffered "serious loss" The Government of Alberta declared a provincial state of emergency, and stated that 1,600 buildings had been destroyed by the fires. It was also estimated that 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of land had been burned. Evacuees who traveled north of Fort McMurray were also advised to stay where they were, and not to come south on Highway 63 as the fire was still burning out of control.

As the fire grew to the northeast, the community of Fort McKay, which hosted 5,000 evacuees from Fort McMurray, was itself put under an evacuation notice. The fire was anticipated to double in size, and reach the Saskatchewan border to the east.The wildfire is expected to take months to contain and extinguish.

The wildfire has also halted oil sands production at facilities north of Fort McMurray, to which many residents have evacuated. Shell Canada has shut down output at its Albania Sands mining operation, located about 70 kilometers north of Fort McMurray. The company stated its priority was to get employees and their families out of the region, and provide capacity at its work camp for some of the evacuees. Shell also provided its landing strip to fly employees and their families to Calgary or Edmonton and has provided two teams to support firefighting efforts in the area.

Succor Energy and Syn crude Canada have also scaled back operations. Succor's Millennium and North Steep bank mines are two of the largest and oldest oil sands mining operations in the Fort McMurray area, and Sync rude's Mildred Lake oil sands mine is located 35 kilometers north of Fort McMurray. The companies have accommodated another 2,000 evacuees each at their work camps. On May 7, Sync rude shut down all site and processing operations, removing 4,800 employees from the area. A quarter of Canada's oil production, equal to an estimated one million barrels of oil a day, was halted as a result of the fire.