Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota are already seeing air quality deteriorate because of smoke from the fires in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Special air quality statements and warnings have blanketed central and northern Alberta as smoke from several wildfires moves across the province.

It’s not yet summer but out-of-control wildfires are raging across Western Canada, fuelled by drought, warmer-than-normal temperatures and lack of rainfall.

Canada, the world’s fourth-largest crude producer, has long seen its energy output threatened by wildfires that rage through the dense forests of northern Alberta in spring and summer. In 2016, a blaze shut down the massive oilsands mines just north of Fort McMurray, taking more than one million barrels of daily production offline.

Firefighters battling a blaze in a remote northern Alberta community were temporarily trapped Thursday as raging wildfires closed in on communities across the province, forcing thousands to flee.

Canadian oil sands company MEG Energy said on Friday it evacuated all nonessential workers from its Christina Lake production facility in northern Alberta due to wildfires burning in the area.

Alberta isn’t the only province grappling with fires. Manitoba declared a province-wide state of emergency on Wednesday amid intensifying blazes in the northern part of the province, with the largest evacuation centered on Flin Flon, Man. where at least 17,000 people have fled the blazes.

Mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for communities in remote northern Alberta as the province braces for another day of potentially explosive wildfire activity.

The situation has been so severe that Manitoba, forced to call upon the Canadian Armed Forces this week, is now seeking international help

Canada, the world’s fourth-largest crude producer, has long seen its energy output threatened by wildfires that rage through the dense forests of northern Alberta in spring and summer. In 2016, a blaze shut down the massive oilsands mines just north of Fort McMurray, taking more than 1 million barrels of daily production offline.