On Friday, police are leading a convoy of 1,500 vehicles through the fire-ravaged area with a help of a helicopter acting as a fire spotter, CTV reported.
The evacuation is expected to take 4 days, according to the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo official Twitter account.
Evacuee Update - May 6, 9:25 a.m. #ymmfire pic.twitter.com/hDDzRfEhVc
— RMWB (@RMWoodBuffalo) May 6, 2016
The convoy is divided into groups of 50 vehicles. Nobody is allowed to stop or leave the convoy.
CBC’s Marion Warnica was on scene interviewing the evacuees.
Brad Williams and Leah Arnold have been waiting to evacuate since Tuesday afternoon. Now they’re just anxious to get out, Arnold said.
Brad Williams and Leah Arnold are #ymm residents, “anxious,” and just took off in latest line of the convoy. #cbc pic.twitter.com/2C7UQJsYBh
— Marion Warnica (@warnicam) May 6, 2016
Hon Fong, an oil worker from Edmonton, had no complaints. “We’re awesome,” he said with a bright smile. “We’re waiting.” He’s been in a camp for 3 days.
As the convoy was getting ready to drive south through the wildfire area, Fong said he‘ll think of the simple things. “Besides my children and my wife,” he said, he’ll think of a “nice dinner.”
The convoy stopped multiple times to allow emergency vehicles, fuel, and fire trucks through.
Fuel and fire trucks blast south down 63. Convoy has paused. Getting emerg vehicles through is a priority pic.twitter.com/I8dZ3SZ35A
— Marion Warnica (@warnicam) May 6, 2016
Large convoy of emergency vehicles just passed through as #ymm North evac convoy pauses. Likely a shift change pic.twitter.com/BdWzoi2NsJ
— Marion Warnica (@warnicam) May 6, 2016
The fire spread to 100,000 hectares (close to 400 square miles), the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo Tweeted shortly after Friday noon. That’s more than the total land area of New York City’s five boroughs. The fire could cost insurers up to $9 billion, a Bank of Montreal analyst told CBC.
An aerial fire assessment is underway, wildfires have now burnt over 100,000 hectares of land #ymmfire #FortMacFire
— RMWB (@RMWoodBuffalo) May 6, 2016
There has been a large outpouring of support for the first responders.
Country 93.3 radio show host Pete Potipcoe evacuated from Fort McMurray on May 3. On Thursday, he shared a story of a firefighter and a volunteer who sacrificed their own homes to save a home of another family.
The family lost a child, Emily Ryan, a 16-year-old triplet and daughter of a deputy fire chief, who died in a car crash on Highway 881 while fleeing the fires Wednesday, GlobalNews.ca reported.
Her sister, Chelsi Ryan, asked Potipcoe to share the story. The fire itself hasn’t claimed a life. But the fatal accident is considered related.
“This is a giant monster that we are battling up here, but the men and women up here are the best men and women you will ever come across in your lifetime,” shared Adam Bugden, firefighter and Emergency Medical Technician at Regional Municipality Of Wood Buffalo on his Facebook page Thursday night.
“I am tired and beaten down but this will not break us!”
