FORT McMURRAY, Alberta — Charred bicycles lean on a fence in front of incinerated town homes. Just across the street, a school and playground are untouched.

Across this Canadian oil sand town, the contrast is repeated: neighborhoods that burned to their foundations, while other neighborhoods, strip malls, car dealerships, schools and hospitals are standing.

Nearly a week after people started evacuating Fort McMurray as a massive wildfire surrounded them, more than 40 journalists were allowed into the city Monday on a bus escorted by police, as the forest surrounding the road into town still smoldered.

The first neighborhood seen, Beacon Hill, was an example of the worst a fire can do.

At one lot, a barbecue sat in the driveway, a few feet away from a charred pickup truck, its wheels melted into the ground, the debris surrounding them the scattered components of what was once a house.

Lot by lot the scene was repeated: homes burned to their foundation and reduced to rubble.

A short drive away, nearly an entire trailer park community burned to the ground, the exception a single line of homes in the last row.

Fort McMurray Fire Chief Darby Allen said that he knew residents were likely watching media reports to find out the status of their neighborhoods. He briefly choked up while saying he wanted them to know that emergency responders “gave their all.”

“We did our very best,” he said.

Even with all of the personal loss, officials said Tuesday that 85 percent to 90 percent of the city remains standing, including the downtown district.

Allen said that the fire got as close as the corner of a bank, but firefighters were able to fight back the flames. If that had not been successful, he said, downtown would have been lost.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said about 2,400 homes and buildings were destroyed in the city, but firefighters managed to save 25,000 others, including the hospital, municipal buildings and every functioning school.

Fort McMurray “is a home you are going to return to,” she promised residents at a news conference Monday.

Those 80,000 residents are scattered throughout the province, some staying at evacuation centers, others with family and friends.

“We will get back to normal as quickly as possible,” she said.

On Tuesday, she said the majority of the oil sands industry has stopped production and will only start back up when it is “absolutely safe.”

Suncor Energy CEO Steve Williams, head of Canada's largest oil company, said about 1 million barrels a day went offline but said some of that has already started to come back.

Notley said the massive oil sands mines north of Fort McMurray have not been damaged.

Alberta's oil sands have the third-largest reserves of oil in the world behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Its workers largely live in Fort McMurray, a former frontier outpost-turned-city.

Notley said getting pipelines and electricity operational are priorities. She said getting production back online will be a matter of “days and short weeks.”

The halted production affects the livelihood of thousands of Canadians, Notley said, with both companies and the government losing revenue. The main highway into Fort McMurray and to the mines to the north has been reopened for oil workers, but they are not allowed to visit the city, she said.

Williams said some employees are getting advances from companies.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau planned to visit Fort McMurray on Friday. No deaths or injuries have been reported from the fire, but two people died in a traffic accident during the evacuation.