Massive northern Alberta wildfire reaches 600,000 hectares

A massive wildfire in northern Alberta is proving to be maddeningly resilient.

While rains have doused some of the Richardson back-country blaze near Fort McMurray, another edge of the fire has grown.

The blaze now covers almost 600,000 hectares.

Crews are doing whatever they can to contain the fire.

A DC-10 jet tanker from California is being used to drop 45,000-litre loads of fire retardant.

And ground crews using bulldozers are beefing up the fire guard to protect a Telus communications site that provides phone service to Fort Chipewyan.