Updates And More Scary Fort McMurray Fire Videos

The fire menacing a Fort McMurray neighborhood
Photo by Mary Sexsmith  

It had to be terrifying. The flames descended on Fort McMurray, Canada so fast that nobody had time to grab anything.

Just get in the car and flee as fast as you can. But you couldn't go fast because of the traffic congestion caused by everybody else fleeing.

It's amazing that I have only heard of two deaths with this thing so far. Both apparently were in car crashes during the evacuation and not the fire itself.

Reuters reports at least 1,600 structures, including hundreds of homes, have been destroyed so far.

There is no telling when all these evacuees will be able to return to Fort McMurray. Some had to evacuate evacuation centers because of the spreading fire.

Smoke from the fire has spread southward all the way to the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coastline, That's a distance of at least 2,500 miles, which tells you massive and powerful this blaze is.

On top of the human suffering - which of course is by far the most important -- the fires have disrupted production in the oil sands area around Fort McMurray.

So this affects you. Oil on the world markets is trading at a 3 percent higher because of tighter supplies brought on by the Alberta fire, CBC reports.

Below is a compilation of some of the wilder videos.

Here's one view of the harrowing escape. You can tell how frightened the people in the car are amid the flames. I'd be scared out of my mind, too:



Here's the traffic congestion. No surprise when the guy on the motorcycle finally freaks out:



This guy is so understandably frightened he can't start his car as spot fires break out on front lawns and a wall of flames approaches from the forest. He says it's probably the last time he'll see his house.

Sadly, he was probably right.



In this rear dash cam, I thought he was driving at night the smoke was so thick. I realized it was daylight when he emerged from the worst of it: