More than 80,000 people have been forced to flee the western Canadian city of Fort McMurray in Alberta province as a massive wildfire threatens to reduce the oil city to ashes, reported The Globe and Mail. Officials admitted that the number could rise to 90,000. The administration, on Wednesday, declared a state of emergency. No casualties have been reported so far, however, local media reports suggested one car crash among the evacuees, reported Reuters.

"The situation in Fort McMurray is not stable," Scott Long of Alberta Emergency Management told The Star. He said the downtown core was being held through the Herculean efforts of the structural firefighters with the help of helicopters and air tankers.

The fire that started on Sunday has already gutted more than 18,500 acres and 1,600 structures in the area, including a new school and its airport, which was engulfed in flames by Wednesday night. A hotel close to the local airport is also believed to have caught fire. A huge cloud of black smoke was visible at a distance of more than 60 km from the town. The "catastrophic fire" had so far "resisted all suppression methods", said Bernie Schmitte, an official at Alberta's Agriculture and Forestry Ministry, according to BBC.