SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Dawn Locklyn-White watched billowing smoke turn the sky red from her downtown Fort McMurray office Tuesday as flames from a raging forest fire licked at the edge of the oil sands capital.

A scene of devastation witnessed from a vehicle as Dawn Locklyn-White and her children fled Fort McMurray on Tuesday afternoon. - photo courtesy of Robbie White A Mountie surveys the damage on a street in Fort McMurray in a photo posted Thursday on Twitter by RCMP in Alberta. - photo courtesy of RCMP The Black Knight Pub servers Jenna Snow, left, and Caitlin Krekoski were donating tips Wednesday to the Canadian Red Cross after the Fort McMurray fire. - photo courtesy of The Black Knight Pub

Her husband's 2 p.m. call about the fire reaching the golf course near their Wood Buffalo neighbourhood triggered a dash from the city that would last 12 hours, involve running through her home dumping whatever belongings she could easily grab into a bag, both parents driving to separate schools to pick up their three children as well as neighbour's children, and creeping along a gridlocked highway south.

"The traffic was so bad I didn't know if we'd make it to both (schools)," she said.

Photos her 13-year-old son took show buildings and vehicles burning on a street as they drove past.

"I never have seen anything like it in my life, it was the scariest thing I've seen," said Locklyn-White, who lived in Yellowknife for eight years before moving to Fort McMurray in 1999.

They drove about 250 kilometres south to Plamondon, Alta., where they have a fifth wheel trailer at a campground. The municipal government said at least 30 homes in her neighbourhood were gone, some close to hers.

"My alarm system is saying my home is OK," she said Wednesday afternoon.

It was one of several stories from former Yellowknife residents in the wake of the evacuation of more than 88,000 people from the boomtown already hurting from low oil prices. Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said Wednesday morning the fire destroyed at least 1,600 structures, including about 600 homes in the Beacon Hill neighbourhood. The cause remains under investigation.

Adam Johnson recalled listening to a local radio station with increasingly panicked coverage as mandatory evacuation orders expanded. Then coverage ended.

"Their last transmission was basically 'Get out of your houses and head north,'" he said.

Johnson, a Yellowknifer reporter from 2006 to 2008 who still helps with the newspaper's website, began packing items from the trailer he has rented for the past six months with his partner Amanda Vaughn, also a former Yellowknifer reporter, including their two dogs. The mandatory evacuation order in the city's northwestern Timberlea area came around 7 p.m. but they waited as long as possible with only a quarter tank of gas to fuel their escape. Traffic was slow. The gas light had come on in the first half-hour of the four-hour journey to the community of Anzac, normally a 20-minute drive.

As they drove between downtown and a wealthier suburb in the city called Beacon Hill, the flames were shooting hundreds of feet in the air, he said. Fire was up to the side of the highway and vehicles were abandoned, including a transit bus left in the median outside the city.

"The fact that firefighters managed to save anything in Fort McMurray is commendable," Johnson said from an Edmonton hotel Wednesday afternoon. His home was safe at the time of the interview but there were still fires in the city.

Various efforts have already begun here to donate or support fire victims – such as waiters at the Black Knight Pub donating tips received Wednesday to the Canadian Red Cross. A gathering has been planned for today at noon in Somba K'e Civic Plaza to show support for those affected.

Premier Bob McLeod offered to lend support – such as aircraft and other firefighting resources – to Alberta. The province doesn't appear to have sought any specific help from the NWT.

"We're prepared to help them as much as we can when we're able to," Richard Olsen, manager of fire operations for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, told reporters Thursday afternoon.

Yesterday, deputy premier Robert C. McLeod stated the GNWT will donate $50,000 to the Canadian Red Cross.

The fire risk in Yellowknife was high given the quick spring melt and warm temperatures, according to Natural Resources Canada, which produces a map of the country showing forecasts of fire danger.

The danger was predicted to drop from extreme Wednesday to low on Friday, meaning a forest fire would be "creeping or gentle surface fires" that could be easily controlled.

The Fort McMurray fire is a reminder to be prepared said Mayor Mark Heyck, adding his thoughts are with those affected.

"Each emergency situation is fairly unique but what's happening in Fort McMurray does reinforce the need to invest in emergency preparedness, including fire smarting, which the city has been undertaking for the past couple of years," Heyck stated in an e-mail.

The city's emergency plan sets out procedures for emergencies although doesn't have specifics about a response to a forest fire that would require an evacuation of parts or the whole city. Last year, city officials said the plan would involve moving people to reception centres such as the Fieldhouse, Multiplex and schools as needed.

The city is spending $125,000 on forest fire preparation this year, including a second year of fire-smarting. The work will be done along the southern edge of the city's Frame Lake South and Kam Lake neighbourhoods considered a highest risk area for fires approaching the community in a 2012 report by the GNWT.

Mine sites, cleared vegetation and lakes generally protect other flanks of the city. The study pre-dates the Grace Lake development which has trucked services.

Fire Chief Darcy Hernblad said the landscape makes what happened in Alberta less likely here, although neighbourhoods on the southeast side of the city abutting the forest would be at risk.

Fire-smarting refers to clearing deadwood, low branches and thinning brush to limit the fuel available for fires in the lower levels of the forest. It's not clear-cutting the area.

City and fire officials have said a high intensity fire would leap along tree-tops and fire smarting in a massive fire situation would likely have only a delaying effect.

Yellowknifer reported in 2014 the recommendations had largely been overlooked for two years.

Council was warned in late 2014 during budget deliberations plans to spend $300,000 on fire preparations over three years may not be enough.

The study has several recommendations beyond fire-smarting such as the inclusion of fire risk in future development planning and bylaw changes to have new or retrofitted structures use fire-resistant roofing and siding. The city wasn't able to say by press time Thursday whether it is working on implementing those recommendations.

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