Parts of Canadian city in oil sands region evacuated as wildfire draws near [Video]

Four neighborhoods of Fort McMurray, a city in Canada’s major oil-producing region, were ordered evacuated Tuesday as an out of control wildfire drew near and the skies filled with smoke.

Shifting winds gusting to 40 kilometers per hour (25 miles per hour) fanned the flames, scorching 9,600 hectares of surrounding forests as it advanced to within 13 kilometers (eight miles) of the city that had previously been gutted by wildfires in 2016 — one of the biggest disasters in the nation’s history.

Thousands of residents in the neighborhoods of Prairie Creek, Abasand, Grayling Terrace and Beacon Hill were ordered out by 4 pm local time. By mid-afternoon, a highway south was jammed with cars and trucks.

“We’re seeing extreme fire behavior,” Alberta Wildfire spokeswoman Josee St-Onge told a news conference.

“Smoke columns are developing and the skies are covered in smoke,” she said. “Firefighters have been pulled from the fire …