Fort McMurray in flames

More than 1 million b/d of oil is offline and the recovery will take weeks

NORTHERN Alberta more resembles a war zone than an oil-production hub, after wildfires raged across an area the size of Tokyo. Water bombers and helicopters buzz overhead as the fire, now entering its second week of devastation, expands over 200,000 hectares and moves eastward into Saskatchewan. Convoys of equipment are at last moving north at military scale, while the final evacuations of some 25,000 oil sands employees – trapped work camps near Alberta’s production epicentre – were completed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and air force. Although the main danger has passed, the city of Fort McMurray is a desolate no-man’s land. Authorities have barricaded it and government officials s