In Photos: Canada's Devastating Fort McMurray Wildfires

By Dana Farrington,

Published May 6, 2016 at 12:01 PM CDT

The wildfire rages along Highway 63 near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, on Tuesday.

Firefighters are still battling massive wildfires that forced mass evacuations of some 80,000 people earlier this week in Alberta, Canada.

Canadian police are escorting a convoy of evacuees through the wreckage, CBC News reports, out of the oil sands camps where they had been staying since Tuesday. As many as 8,000 people have been airlifted to safety, reporter Dan Karpenchuk tells our Newscast unit.

People needed to be taken out of the camps because of limited food and fuel, he says.

"[Royal Canadian Mounted Police] cruisers will escort groups of 50 vehicles at a time," the CBC says. "Helicopters will watch from overhead. All intersections along the route will be controlled and blocked by police, to ensure no vehicles try to slip away from the convoy."

A convoy of cars sporadically heads south on Highway 63 on Friday after evacuees were stranded at an oil sands camp north of Fort McMurray.

Those who live in and around Fort McMurray have been told "it will not be a matter of days" before they can go home, The Two-Way reported Friday morning.

Here's a glimpse of how the fire has progressed over the course of the week: