FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta — A large convoy was underway Friday to move evacuees stranded at oil field camps north of fire-ravaged Fort McMurray, Alberta, through the community to safe areas south of the Canadian oil sands capital.
Police and military are overseeing the procession of an estimated 1,500 vehicles.
Meanwhile, a mass airlift of evacuees was expected to resume, a day after 8,000 people were flown out.
In all, more than 80,000 people have left Fort McMurray, in the heart of Canada's oil sands, and officials say no deaths or injuries related to the fire have been reported.
The Alberta provincial government, which declared a state of emergency, said more than 1,100 firefighters, 145 helicopters, 138 pieces of heavy equipment and 22 air tankers were fighting the fire, but Chad Morrison, Alberta's manager of wildfire prevention, said rain is needed.
"Let me be clear: air tankers are not going to stop this fire," he said. "It is going to continue to push through these dry conditions until we actually get some significant rain."
Environment Canada forecast a 40 percent chance of showers in the area Saturday.
About 25,000 evacuees moved north in the hours after Tuesday's mandatory evacuation, where oil sands work camps that usually house employees were used to house evacuees. But the bulk of the more than 80,000 evacuees fled south to Edmonton and elsewhere, and officials are moving everyone south where they can get better support services.
Some 8,000 evacuees had been flown to Edmonton and Calgary by Thursday night. It appeared the highway was safe enough on Friday to move thousands more south on the highway. It was not safe Thursday.
Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.