Calgary air quality deteriorates as wildfires rage in Western Canada (updated)

Veren

16/05/2023 15:19

(Recasts with air quality warnings, adds production impact in
paragraph 3, flood warning in paragraph 9)
    By Rod Nickel and Ismail Shakil
       May 16 (Reuters) - The Western Canadian city of Calgary
received a special weather alert on Tuesday, warning residents
of poor air quality and reduced visibility as tinder-dry weather
and shifting winds elevated the risk of spreading wildfires in
the oil-producing province of Alberta.
    Some 90 wildfires are active in Alberta, with 23 out of
control, according to the provincial government, forcing about
20,000 people out of their homes. At one point the fires forced
oil and gas producers to shut in at least 319,000 barrels of oil
equivalent per day, or 3.7% of national production.
    On Tuesday morning, Calgary-based Crescent Point Energy
 CPG.TO  said it was shutting in its Kaybob Duvernay production,
impacting 45,000 boe/d, as a precautionary measure due to
changing wildfire conditions. Benchmark Canadian heavy crude
prices have risen to their highest levels in months on concerns
about the wildfires.
    A cold front bringing gusty northwest wind, but little rain,
was likely on Tuesday, according to Environment Canada's weather
department.
    The change in wind direction can pose a problem for
firefighters as the path of the fires changes suddenly, said
Christie Tucker, spokesperson for the Alberta Wildfire agency.
    Evacuation orders and alerts have also been sounded in the
neighboring province of British Columbia, where some 60
wildfires are active.
    "The arrival of sustained winds from the north has resulted
in aggressive fire behavior on all wildfires within the North
Peace Region," the BC Wildfire Service said late on Monday.
    Farther west, the hot weather is causing rapid snow melt
that has increased river flow and prompted authorities to issue
a flood warning for part of the Skeena region, in inland British
Columbia.
    The Canadian military and firefighters from across Canada
and the United States are helping fight the blazes.
    "We will build better," Judy Levesque, 50, who lost her
Drayton Valley, Alberta, house in the wildfires, said, fighting
back tears. "We planned to renovate so now we get to do it
quicker."
    "That's the attitude we have to have because it’s too sad
the other way."

 (Reporting by by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa, Anna Mehler Paperny
in Toronto and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba
Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Matthew Lewis)
 ((rod.nickel@tr.com; Twitter: @RodNickel_Rtrs;))