Evacuees brace for long wait as fire in Canada rages on

Gregoire Lake, Alberta

A WILDFIRE ripping through Canada's oil-sands region blazed for a seventh day on Sunday as officials warned almost 100,000 people who fled the area that they would not be returning home soon.

The fire, which started at 6 pm eastern (2200 GMT) last Sunday near the town of Fort McMurray in northern Alberta, spread so quickly that the town's 88,000 inhabitants barely had time to leave. Large parts of the town no longer exist.