We had a huge wildfire in our city (Fort McMurray; the fire was called the Beast) in 2016. We had a small fire just out of the city near Horse Creek. I took a few pictures of it but it didn’t seem that dangerous. The next day, we had a fire within city limits that was put out. It distributed some ashes across our neighbourhood but was contained. I figured we must have used up all our bad luck and was relieved.
The third day, I was out sweeping ashes off my deck when all of a sudden, it got dark. I turned around and realized we had another huge fire right behind us. Nobody was prepared. I spent the next few hours trying to get gas without success. People weren’t following traffic lights and some were fighting by the gas pumps. When my husband finally got home, we had burning branches falling all around us. I took one last look at my house and we left.
Because the city was completely unprepared, all 80,000 people were evacuating at once, so it was almost impossible to get out of our neighbourhood. I came up with a work around and we finally got on the only highway out of town. Because the fire had shut down the highway south, we were all trying to go north but the roads were too full. They had to open the highway south no matter how bad the flames were.
The next half hour was the most terrifying of my life. My husband was in his truck with pets and I was in my vehicle with the remaining pets. Because there was so much traffic we were all going about school zone speed as the flames burned right beside us. The smoke was so thick, you couldn’t see. There were burning buildings and trees all around us.
Our city center is in a deep valley, once you drive through that area, there’s a steep hill to get out of town. We are creeping along and the smoke cleared for a second. The flames were so high over the trees that it looked like the air itself was on fire. Then there was a series of explosions to left as a couple of sizeable propane tanks let go. As I looked up the hill, I saw abandoned vehicles everywhere.
I couldn’t understand. At first, I thought maybe they all ran out of gas. But then I remembered an episode of a show called “I Survived” where a semi truck was driving through a forest fire. His vehicle stopped because there wasn’t enough oxygen for the engine. I suddenly realized that was what had happened.
All I could feel was terror. My mouth was dry and tasted like metal. I was sure that any second, both our vehicles would stall and we’d watch each other burn to death just a few feet apart. The minutes it took to get up the rest of that hill felt like a lifetime.
Once we got to the top, I thought maybe we’d be okay but everything, absolutely everything was on fire. Hotels, restaurants, the propane center, all of it burning. We were driving through blackness because of the smoke and I was just concentrating on the tail lights in front of me and praying nobody hit the brakes.
I glanced at a what had been a beautiful campground that was burned to the ground. There was a power pole was suspended above the ground by wires because the bottom had burned away. It was on fire in the air and looked like a burning cross.
After that, we passed the worst part. The city had closed the highway north and converted all lanes southbound. It took us 9 hours to get the 200 kilometres to a friend’s farm. We didn’t know if our children and grand children got out. We didn’t know if we had a home or job waiting. We rested for a few hours and then kept heading south.
It was a huge traffic jam for hours. No one was moving. There was no food, no water, no gas. Kind people were bringing things. A man gave me a bottle of water and a handful of trail mix. Because everyone was trying to find people, our cell phones were mostly useless. We used back roads and finally got to safety that night. Eventually, later that night, we found out that our family was alive.
We were very lucky. Most of the community worked at one of the oil sands plants nearby. We all had to take special training to deal with emergencies, even administrative staff. I think that training saved lives. They were a few people panicking but most kept their heads. We lost two young people during the evacuation due to a traffic accident. But that was it. It could have been so much worse.
I used to love summer, especially the thunderstorms. Not anymore. As soon as it gets warm, we get ready. Go bags packed, cars full of gas, ready to leave at a moments notice. We still have multiple fires each year but none as bad as The Beast.
The third day, I was out sweeping ashes off my deck when all of a sudden, it got dark. I turned around and realized we had another huge fire right behind us. Nobody was prepared. I spent the next few hours trying to get gas without success. People weren’t following traffic lights and some were fighting by the gas pumps. When my husband finally got home, we had burning branches falling all around us. I took one last look at my house and we left.
Because the city was completely unprepared, all 80,000 people were evacuating at once, so it was almost impossible to get out of our neighbourhood. I came up with a work around and we finally got on the only highway out of town. Because the fire had shut down the highway south, we were all trying to go north but the roads were too full. They had to open the highway south no matter how bad the flames were.
The next half hour was the most terrifying of my life. My husband was in his truck with pets and I was in my vehicle with the remaining pets. Because there was so much traffic we were all going about school zone speed as the flames burned right beside us. The smoke was so thick, you couldn’t see. There were burning buildings and trees all around us.
Our city center is in a deep valley, once you drive through that area, there’s a steep hill to get out of town. We are creeping along and the smoke cleared for a second. The flames were so high over the trees that it looked like the air itself was on fire. Then there was a series of explosions to left as a couple of sizeable propane tanks let go. As I looked up the hill, I saw abandoned vehicles everywhere.
I couldn’t understand. At first, I thought maybe they all ran out of gas. But then I remembered an episode of a show called “I Survived” where a semi truck was driving through a forest fire. His vehicle stopped because there wasn’t enough oxygen for the engine. I suddenly realized that was what had happened.
All I could feel was terror. My mouth was dry and tasted like metal. I was sure that any second, both our vehicles would stall and we’d watch each other burn to death just a few feet apart. The minutes it took to get up the rest of that hill felt like a lifetime.
Once we got to the top, I thought maybe we’d be okay but everything, absolutely everything was on fire. Hotels, restaurants, the propane center, all of it burning. We were driving through blackness because of the smoke and I was just concentrating on the tail lights in front of me and praying nobody hit the brakes.
I glanced at a what had been a beautiful campground that was burned to the ground. There was a power pole was suspended above the ground by wires because the bottom had burned away. It was on fire in the air and looked like a burning cross.
After that, we passed the worst part. The city had closed the highway north and converted all lanes southbound. It took us 9 hours to get the 200 kilometres to a friend’s farm. We didn’t know if our children and grand children got out. We didn’t know if we had a home or job waiting. We rested for a few hours and then kept heading south.
It was a huge traffic jam for hours. No one was moving. There was no food, no water, no gas. Kind people were bringing things. A man gave me a bottle of water and a handful of trail mix. Because everyone was trying to find people, our cell phones were mostly useless. We used back roads and finally got to safety that night. Eventually, later that night, we found out that our family was alive.
We were very lucky. Most of the community worked at one of the oil sands plants nearby. We all had to take special training to deal with emergencies, even administrative staff. I think that training saved lives. They were a few people panicking but most kept their heads. We lost two young people during the evacuation due to a traffic accident. But that was it. It could have been so much worse.
I used to love summer, especially the thunderstorms. Not anymore. As soon as it gets warm, we get ready. Go bags packed, cars full of gas, ready to leave at a moments notice. We still have multiple fires each year but none as bad as The Beast.