By Mariam Ibrahim, Jesse Snyder and Julianna Cummins, Postmedia News

Northern Alberta residents fled their homes Sunday and gathered on beaches and parking lots as a pair of wildfires beared down on the town of Slave Lake.

Community officials issued an evacuation order Sunday evening, but with fires threatening the highways, they first urged the roughly 7,000 residents to make their way to safe spots in the town.

“Fire has breached the Town of Slave Lake Boundary along the southern portion,” the town’s website read in bold red letters. “Please move toward large green areas, beaches or large parking lots like Walmart, Canadian Tire, or the Sawridge Mall Parking Lot.”

The town’s website briefly went dark, part of the chaos that engulfed the community about 250 kilometres north of Edmonton as the day wore on. Cellphone coverage was intermitent, electricty was spotty and the best available information often came from the local radio station’s Facebook page.

Premier Ed Stelmach said on Twitter that he was watching the situation closely, while Sustainable Resource Development Minister Mel Knight spent part of Sunday in Slave Lake surveying the scene.

Knight said there are roughly 200 firefighters in the area and more than 100 pieces of equipment, with more arriving Monday. Still, people in the town are on edge.

“People were frightened,” Knight said. “Some individuals were wondering where they were going to go.”

Earlier in the day, officials ordered roughly 800 to 900 people to evacuate the areas of Wagner, Widewater, Bayer Road, Sawridge Reserve West, Canyon Creek and Assineau, west of town.

Officials said at the time that they did not expect the town to be evacuated, so they took people to a pair of schools in Slave Lake.

On Sunday afternoon, the fire area was about 1,000 hectares, with 300 hectares already burnt.

A second wildfire, which broke out just before 6 p.m. Saturday, continued to burn east of the town, which is about 250 kilometres north of Edmonton. That blaze forced at least 260 residents in the Poplar Lane and Mitsue areas to leave their homes.

Officials said they are increasing the amount of ground work and bombing as the fires intensify.

Residents are not being allowed to return to their homes until further notice.

Crews with Sustainable Resource Development, Lesser Slave Lake fire services and other volunteers worked overnight to set up fire breaks around the town to protect homes and property in the evacuation zone.

At least 10 buildings east of town and several vehicles were destroyed by the fire, but there were no reported injuries.

Weather conditions remained a challenge on Sunday with wind gusts up to 70 kilometres per hour and a high of 18 C forecast.

Meanwhile, a fire that broke out north of Fort McMurray, Alta., Saturday night spread from an initial 10 hectares to about 16,000 hectares burning on Sunday. The fire, about 450 kilometres north of Edmonton, jumped the Athabasca River and forced the evacuation of Richardson backcountry, and around around 30 people had to be airlifted out of the region.

Sustainable Resource Development wildfire spokeswoman Whitney Exton said the fire spread rapidly because of gusting winds, reported to be around 37 km/h.

Another fire south of Loon Lake, about 500 kilometres north of Edmonton, forced officials to evacuate residents to Peace River, Alta.

Residents in Red Earth, east of Loon Lake, were put on evacuation notice, according to Sustainable Resource Development.

Cleanup efforts at the Rainbow pipeline oil spill site were suspended after a 15,000-hectare wildfire aided by heavy winds approached the area Sunday.

The evacuation order was issued at 11 a.m. Sunday, says a news release from Plains Midstream Canada.

The company said it was instructed to evacuate all of its on-site staff. Cleanup is expected to resume once the evacuation order is lifted and the area is deemed safe, the release says.

The Rainbow pipeline normally moves 187,000 barrels of crude oil a day, but has been shut down for more than two weeks after a breach in the pipe spilled at least 28,000 barrels of crude oil into a marsh 30 kilometres from the small First Nations community of Little Buffalo.

As of Sunday afternoon, Sustainable Resource Development officials reported 97 wildfires burning across the province, with 37 of those considered out of control. Late Saturday there were 57 wildfires reported in Alberta. More than 38,000 hectares of land in Alberta are burning, with the majority of fires in the Edson, Whitecourt and Slave Lake area.

Edmonton Journal