Alberta officials on Saturday lifted mandatory evacuation orders in some areas north of Fort McMurray, where a raging wildfire has forced the evacuation of more than 80,000 people and the closure of oil sands operations, AP reported. Officials said conditions have improved in some parts north of the oil sands city. Suncor Energy Inc. and Syncrude will now be able to resume their idled northern oil sands operations and bring back evacuated workers. About 8,000 oil sands workers in camps north of Fort McMurray were evacuated last Tuesday after gusting winds and high temperatures caused the fire to move rapidly toward them. That was in addition to the 80,000 people ordered to evacuate Fort McMurray nearly 2 آ1⁄2 weeks ago. Northern Alberta is the heartland of Canada's oil sands industry and the effects of the enormous wildfire on the oil sector have prompted forecasters to trim their 2016 economic growth predictions for the entire country. The Alberta oil sands have the third-largest reserves of oil in the world behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Its workers largely live in Fort McMurray, a former frontier outpost-turned-city whose residents come from all over Canada.
