FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. — A recent study indicates a deadly spill of hazardous materials in this Northern Alberta city is all but inevitable.

A municipal safety study warns that since the only dangerous goods route (Hwy. 63) runs right through the heart of the city, "The question is not if an accident will occur, but when."

Each day about 150 trucks laden with hazardous materials travel the highway which runs through residential and commercial zones.

Local fire chief, Jeff Carlisle, told local media the threat of a disaster is "on the horizon for us all the time."

Wood Buffalo Mayor, Doug Faulkner, is calling on the province to help build a new road that would remove much of this danger from the community and reroute it through a less-populated area. However, the province has said it has no plans to build a new highway at least not within the next three years.