The Fort McMurray wildfire that decimated the northern Alberta city and consumed more than half a million hectares of forest is now classified as under control.
Cooler temperatures, rain and firefighting efforts combined to bring the fire to heel, said wildfire information officer Laura Stewart.
The wildfire hazard in the Fort McMurray region is now classified as low.
The fire’s status was downgraded Monday morning at 9:30 a.m. MT, Stewart said.
Nonetheless, a lot of work remains as firefighters continue to look for and extinguish hotspots, she said.
The next phase is to extinguish the fire completely, which will likely take until next summer, she said.
The fire was first detected May 1. On May 3, it entered Fort McMurray, forcing a mass evacuation of the city’s 80,000 residents.
At its peak, the fire moved at 30 to 40 metres per minute and created its own weather patterns.
The fire moved east towards the Saskatchewan border, covering 589,552 hectares.
While investigators believe the fire was started by humans, it’s still not known exactly how it began.