Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
Watch Live

In Photos: Canada's Devastating Fort McMurray Wildfires

A helicopter flies into thick smoke while battling a major forest fire outside of Fort McMurray on Wednesday.
Topher Seguin Reuters
A helicopter flies into thick smoke while battling a major forest fire outside of Fort McMurray on Wednesday.

NOAA's Hazard Mapping System shows the smoke from the Alberta wildfire across the United States.
NOAA/Google Earth
NOAA's Hazard Mapping System shows the smoke from the Alberta wildfire across the United States.

Drivers wait outside Fort McMurray for clearance to take firefighting supplies into town on Thursday.
Scott Olson Getty Images
Drivers wait outside Fort McMurray for clearance to take firefighting supplies into town on Thursday.

Advertisement
Marlee Hildebrandt and her 2-year-old daughter, Oakley, clean cots at a makeshift evacuee center in Lac la Biche, Alberta, on Thursday, after fleeing forest fires.
Cole Burston AFP/Getty Images
Marlee Hildebrandt and her 2-year-old daughter, Oakley, clean cots at a makeshift evacuee center in Lac la Biche, Alberta, on Thursday, after fleeing forest fires.

Tyra Abo sits on a cot at a makeshift evacuee center in Lac la Biche on Thursday.
Cole Burston AFP/Getty Images
Tyra Abo sits on a cot at a makeshift evacuee center in Lac la Biche on Thursday.

Home foundations are all that remain in a residential neighborhood destroyed by a wildfire on Friday in Fort McMurray.
Scott Olson Getty Images
Home foundations are all that remain in a residential neighborhood destroyed by a wildfire on Friday in Fort McMurray.

Swings were burned away in a residential neighborhood destroyed by a wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada on Friday.
Scott Olson Getty Images
Swings were burned away in a residential neighborhood destroyed by a wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada on Friday.

The wildfire rages along Highway 63 near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, on Tuesday.
Terry Reith CBC News via Reuters
The wildfire rages along Highway 63 near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, on Tuesday.

Advertisement
A convoy of cars sporadically heads south on Highway 63 on Friday after evacuees were stranded at an oil sands camp north of Fort McMurray.
Cole Burston AFP/Getty Images
A convoy of cars sporadically heads south on Highway 63 on Friday after evacuees were stranded at an oil sands camp north of Fort McMurray.

Firefighters are still battling massive wildfires that forced mass evacuations of some 80,000 people earlier this week in Alberta, Canada.

Canadian police are escorting a convoy of evacuees through the wreckage, CBC News reports, out of the oil sands camps where they had been staying since Tuesday. As many as 8,000 people have been airlifted to safety, reporter Dan Karpenchuk tells our Newscast unit.

People needed to be taken out of the camps because of limited food and fuel, he says.

"[Royal Canadian Mounted Police] cruisers will escort groups of 50 vehicles at a time," the CBC says. "Helicopters will watch from overhead. All intersections along the route will be controlled and blocked by police, to ensure no vehicles try to slip away from the convoy."

Those who live in and around Fort McMurray have been told "it will not be a matter of days" before they can go home, The Two-Way reported Friday morning.

Here's a glimpse of how the fire has progressed over the course of the week:

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.