Thousands forced to flee western Canadian town as wildfires approach

(Reuters) -Around 5,000 people were forced to leave the western Canadian town of Jasper early on Tuesday to escape approaching wildfires, the latest victims of what experts say could be one of the worst-ever seasons for fires.

"This is an evolving emergency situation ... we will provide more information as it becomes available," the local municipality said in a notice at 6.35 am ET (1035 GMT).

Video posted to social media showed a long line of cars slowly driving out of Jasper to the west in the dark. Evacuee Stephanie Goertz told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that it had taken her three hours to drive three km (1.9 miles).

The evacuation order covers Jasper and the surrounding Jasper National Park, which are located in the province of Alberta about 370 km (230 miles) to the west of Edmonton, the provincial capital.

In a separate notice, the province said the evacuation was progressing well.

Scorching heat in the Northern Hemisphere has baked much of the Western U.S. and Canada. Alberta says around 50 fires are currently burning out of control across the province.

Last week, wildfires raging through the northern part of Alberta prompted evacuations of three communities. In neighboring British Columbia, up to 367 active wildfires are burning.

In April, federal officials said Canada risked another "catastrophic" wildfire season amid higher-than-normal spring and summer temperatures across much of the country.

Last year Canada endured its worst-ever fire season, with more than 6,600 blazes burning 15 million hectares, an area roughly seven times the annual average.

Earlier this month, Suncor, Canada's second-largest oil company, temporarily curtailed some production and evacuated non-essential workers from its 215,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Firebag site because of a fire close by.

In the easternmost province of Newfoundland and Labrador, authorities said on Monday that thousands of people ordered from their homes in the face of a raging wildfire could return home.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Daksh Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Neil Fullick and Andrea Ricci)