More than a third of a town in Alberta was destroyed by a wildfire on Monday, forcing oil facilities to shut off thousands of barrel outputs. Alberta is the biggest energy-producing province in Canada.

More than a dozen forest fires were triggered in Alberta during one of the driest weekend of the year. The forest fires forced the emergency evacuation of a couple communities such as Slave Lake, a town of at least 10,000 residents. Slave Lake is also the center of gas, oil, and forestry.

Mayor Karina Pillay-Kinnee of Slave Lake spoke to the media from a command center in the heart of the town. The mayor said that at present, a couple of public buildings and some houses. The town is now deserted, she said, except for the emergency personnel. She also added that in t he area, they can still feel the intense heat and a couple of areas are still on fire. They are, however, still trying to contain the fire.

Rob Harris, Alberta’s information officer, said that the two blazes that were driven by strong wind last Sunday converged in Slave Lake and it only made the situation even more difficult for them. Oil companies were also forced to shut down their facilities and halt production.

Penn West Petroleum Ltd, for example, had to shut at least 25,000 barrels of oil in their daily production in north-central Alberta due to the fire. Company’s chief executive, Bill Andrew, assured the public that their employees are safe; however, some of them lost their homes.

Spokesperson of Cenovous Energy Inc, Rhona DelFrari said that the company has ample storage capacity to continue pumping crude oil until today. She added that they are ready to stop their operations in their Pelican Lake oil field that produces around 22,000 barrels each day.