TUESDAY MAY 10, 2016
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FORT MCMURRAY FIRES
Parksville man flees the flames Local man rescues some belongings before fire destroys his crew house AUREN RUVINSKY writer@pqbnews.com
“I thought there might be a few items left, but all I could find was nails, there’s nothing left there at all,” said Adam Fras of his house in Fort McMurray last week. The 31-year-old Parksville firefighter had just returned north days earlier for his 10th year of seasonal work as a bush pilot. On Sunday, May 1 there was smoke in the distance as Fras got back into the swing of things, shuttling people and supplies to the remote communities north of Fort McMurray. He said it was a busy day in town and he was actually working at a trade show at the McDonald Island sports complex when people started to notice smoke to the southwest. “Fires are pretty typical in this area, we get them all the time, but we started to see air tankers arriving,” Fires don’t typically move the 31-year-old told The NEWS by that fast phone on Friday. ADAM FRAS “There were about three fires that started at the same time. One was closer to town so they put all their efforts on that one and put it out, but this fire to the southwest just continued to burn. Fires don’t typically move that fast and there were air tankers on it, so everyone felt like it was being taken care of, and it was to an extent.” But as people around the world now know, the conditions were set. “The trees didn’t have a chance to bud, there’s no greenery on them, it’s just all dry, dead leaves and trees, so when the winds picked up it gave it all the fuel it needed for the fire to spread.” From late Sunday into Tuesday there was lots of smoke and activity around the fires, but it seemed fairly routine, Fras said. “On Monday winds shifted a couple of times and they put out voluntary evacuations so I went back to my house and packed up a few things and then it kinda died down so people went back home and everything was fine,” he said. “And then on Tuesday (May 3) I was out on a flight, watching the fire. It was a fair ways from the city still, it didn’t look like imminent danger. But when I got back to the airport, within an hour the smoke was heavy over town and it was looking pretty bad.”
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ADAM FRAS PHOTO
The only road out of the Fort McMurray neighbourhood of Beacon Hill on May 3 was toward the wildfire sweeping into the city. Parksville resident Adam Fras took this photo from inside his vehicle. The house he owns in Fort McMurray was destroyed by the fire.
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