Security camera video shows near destruction at Fort McMurray Airport

It felt like a flashback as Justin Krasnikoff watched his company's tiny aircraft hangar in Fort McMurray nearly go up in flames last week.

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As a raging wildfire breached the perimeter of the Fort McMurray International Airport on Wednesday night, the Can-West Corporate Air Charters property was directly in the path of the fire.

Krasnikoff was unsure whether the site, which supplies fleet, charter, freight and medical flights across the Wood Buffalo Region, had survived.

"We didn't know what was going on, so my phone rang off the hook all night long," Krasnikoff said.

But he wasn't left to wonder for long.

The company managed to pull live footage from their "nest camera." The camera, which is normally used to monitor weather conditions like snow and rain, captured a staggering sight.

First: billowing clouds of smoke roll across the horizon. Within minutes flames, so hot they burned an electric blue, light up at the edge of the frame, and the sky turns bright orange with cinders and ash.

It was a close call, but the building survived largely unscathed.

"The siding will need to be replaced. It obviously got pretty hot, but outside that the hangar is fine."

'When they say 'go,' we go'

For Krasnikoff, the dramatic footage brought back painful memories. He lived in Slave Lake when the city — including the company's hangar in that community — was nearly obliterated by a wildfire in 2011.

"Our Slave Lake airplane (hangar) was in a similar situation five years ago, and I lived in Slave Lake at that time so it's a bit of déjà vu. 

"It brings back a lot of memories of the unknown," Krasnikoff said.

"We were in a kind of situation where we didn't know what was going on, and when we would be able to go home ... and as we know now, the fire and the damage in Fort McMurray is much more than it was in Slave Lake, so I can't even imagine."

Since the fire erupted last week, the company has continued to operate around the clock, relying on industry runways to help to transport evacuees and camp workers out of harm's way.

"We've been busy. We've been doing what we can, and when they say 'go,' we go," Krasnikoff said.

"This is my job, and don't let me fool you, we fly medevac 12 months a year, so this part of our normal job — helping people — but I'm happy to do what we can."

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