Wildfires prompt evacuation orders in Jasper, Alberta

(Reuters) -Canadian authorities issued an evacuation order late on Monday for the Town of Jasper and Jasper National Park in the province of Alberta following wild fires.

The Municipality of Jasper said in a statement that the fire had originally been expected to reach the community within five hours, but was no longer expected to do so.

However, the authority said the town should be evacuated as a precaution.

Scorching heat in the Northern Hemisphere has baked much of the Western U.S. and Canada.

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

Earlier in the 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 roughly eight km (five miles) away.

(Reporting by Daksh Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Neil Fullick)