OTTAWA, May 13 (Reuters) -

Firefighters on Monday battled a large wildfire heading

towards a remote western Canadian town as winds and tinder dry

conditions threatened to spread the flames further, a provincial

minister said.

The largely evacuated town of Fort Nelson in British

Columbia is in the line of one of the season's first major

wildfires that have spread to 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres)

across Western Canada and are sending smoke plumes over five

provinces, as well as parts of the northern U.S.

Bowinn Ma, British Columbia's minister of emergency

management and climate readiness, said conditions in the north

of the Pacific province - an area that includes Fort Nelson -

were extremely challenging.

"With no major precipitation in the forecast ahead and

winds that can they can pick up at any time, we ... are

extremely concerned," she told a televised briefing. "We may

begin to see volatile wildfire activity later this afternoon."

The fire, which started on Friday, covered over 5,280

hectares (13,050 acres) and had reached 2.5 kilometers (1.6

miles) west of Fort Nelson by Monday morning.

After its worst-ever-wildfire season last year, Canada

experienced one of its warmest winters with low to non-existent

snow in many areas, raising fears of a hot summer triggering

blazes in forests and wild lands amid an ongoing drought.

Northeastern British Columbia and the northern region of

neighboring Alberta are the heartland of Canada's energy

industry. There have been no reports of any disruption to oil

and gas extraction.

"Operations are safely continuing on our pipelines

systems and we continue to closely monitor as the situation is

dynamic," TC Energy ( TRP ), a major pipeline company, said on

Monday.

In Alberta, authorities said there were two wildfires of

note, including one near the major oil town of

Fort McMurray

. In 2016, a huge wildfire in Fort McMurray forced the

evacuation of 90,000 residents and shut in more than a million

barrels per day of oil output.

Residents were placed on an evacuation alert on Friday,

though favorable weather conditions have kept the fire about 16

km away, Alberta officials said on Monday. Light rain showers

were expected to aid firefighting later in the day, they said.

The federal government last month said Canada faces

another catastrophic wildfire season as it forecast

higher-than-normal spring and summer temperatures across much of

the country, boosted by El Nino weather conditions.

As of Sunday, there were some 143 active blazes across

Canada, including 39 deemed out of control, according to the

Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.