Ex-Winnipegger back home with parents after fleeing Fort McMurray

Ex-Winnipegger Clare Sawatzky is glad to be back in her home city after escaping the massive fire which continues to burn near Fort McMurray.

With her husband and young son, she flew into Winnipeg on Friday night to stay with her parents and three brothers. Sawtatzky, who is six months pregnant, says she doesn't know how long they'll be here.

"I guess a lot depends on the state of our home and right now we really don't know. We've had so many conflicting stories as to whether or not our house is standing," she said.

"But we do know that our neighbourhood is still full of what they call active fire. And so I guess we are prepared for the worst — to go home to an empty lot," said Sawatzky.

The Sawatzkys live in a neighbourhood that backs on to forest and they were initially asked to leave their home for a few hours the Sunday before last. But then on Tuesday afternoon Fort McMurray was put under the evacuation order that has remained in place.

As the road to the south was not open, Sawatzky and her son drove north to her husband's business location where they spent the night.

"There were forty people that spent the night there. A lot of them are friends, also with young children - and some people that we've never met before, but it doesn't matter in a situation like this. You all just sleep on the concrete floor together," said Sawatzky.

• Rachel Notley, mayor, fire chief, to take media on tour of Fort McMurray
• An eruption of flame: RCMP officer says 'Get out - NOW'
• Strangers make Mother's Day special for Fort McMurray evacuees

The next day the road to the south re-opened and the Sawatzkys drove through Fort McMurray on their way to a friend's farm out of the danger area.

"The sight driving through town was just devastating. The closest thing that I could relate it to would be a horror apocalypse movie. Dozens of empty vehicles littered the highway, some of them with their hoods open and their trunks open, where people had just grabbed their suitcases and gotten into another vehicle and just fled," Sawatzky said.

"And I'm six months pregnant so luckily I had a gas mask that I could wear as we drove through town because it was so smokey in your vehicle that your eyes were watering and you were coughing."

Numerous businesses and hotels that once lines the roads are just not there anymore, she said.

"All that's left are some flames and an elevator shaft and trailer parks that are just burned to the ground. It was unbelievable. But luckily as we got out of town the sky became blue and it gave us a lot of hope that world might go on."

Now safe in her parents' Winnipeg home, Sawatzky is feeling relieved.

"It feels good, nearing the end of a pregnancy and just needing to see a doctor for a couple of things and just knowing that there may not be any doctors left in Fort McMurray, or any clinics, or a hospital," she said.

"It's just great peace knowing that I can go to a city that can take care of me and give me everything that my family and I need right now."