Canada wildfire to 'double in size' as blaze creates own weather and smoke is detected in Florida

A huge wildfire which has engulfed parts of Alberta province in central Canada may double in size, officials have warned. The blaze, described by some residents as “hell on earth”, had grown to around 386 square miles by Friday, according to the Alberta provincial government. Smoke from the fire has been detected as far away as the southern US state of Florida.

So far, there have been no deaths reported, but around 80,000 people have been forced to leave their homes. The communities of Fort McMurray, Anzac, Gregoire Lake Estates and Fort McMurray First Nation are all subject to evacuation orders.

In Fort McMurray, some 1,600 buildings have been burned to the ground. Rachel Notley, Premier of Alberta, wrote on Twitter: "Fort McMurray is not safe to return to and this will be true for a significant period of time."

Alberta's manager of wildfire prevention, Chad Morrison, said there was a "high potential that the fire could double in size" by the end of Saturday. He expected the fire to expand into a more remote forested area northeast and away from Fort McMurray.

According to Mr Morrison, no amount of resources would put the fire out, and what was needed was rain.  "We have not seen rain in this area for the last two months of significance," he said. "This fire will continue to burn for a very long time until we see some significant rain."

Fanned by high winds, scorching heat and low humidity, the fire grew fast. On Tuesday, it was around 29 square miles and reached 39 square miles by Wednesday. However, on Thursday it was almost nine times that -- 330 square miles -- roughly the size of Calgary, the largest city in Alberta province.

The fire is now so large that it has been creating its own weather conditions, causing “pyrocumulus clouds intense enough to cause lightning", according to meteorologist Eric Holthaus.

More extremely dry conditions and temperatures of 27 Celsius were expected for Saturday along with strong winds, wildfire chief Mr Morrison said – perfect conditions to exacerbate the blaze.

"It's going to be a very extreme fire hazard kind of day," Matthew Anderson, an Alberta wildfire information officer, told CBC News, adding "today will certainly be a very, very challenging day and the (fire's) growth potential is quite large."

However, cooler conditions are expected on Sunday and Monday.