Alberta Fire (Page 8)

Until visitors opened the curtains on his hospital window, Ryan Cyr had no idea advancing wildfires had triggered the evacuation of Fort McMurray. A quadriplegic recovering from recent surgery, Cyr was startled to see fire and smoke billowing over a neighbourhood just across the highway from his hospital room. “I could see the flames on top of the hill, and I thought, okay, this isn’t going to be good,” said the 21-year-old.

When Robert Waniandy fled the Alberta wildfires with just a garbage bag full of clothes, the 65-year-old had no idea when or where he would see his wife again. The smoke and chaos in Fort McMurray had prompted his wife, Annie Auger, 71, to leave Fort McMurray a few days earlier. When Waniandy, a retired welder, finally reached the evacuation centre at Edmonton’s Expo Centre, he felt so sick that he could only lie listlessly on his cot. Concerned volunteers transferred him to the Royal Alexandra hospital, where he discovered his wife had also been admitted with health issues.

Running from dense smoke and approaching flames is frightening enough the first time. But getting evacuated twice from the burning forests of northern Alberta still didn’t faze Mike Morrison and his fellow scaffolders.

Need help with gas? Have a question about your accommodation? Don’t worry. Volunteers with Canadian Red Cross are ready, well-trained and able to help with hundreds of concerns raised daily by people forced to flee the Alberta wildfires.

Audrey Redcrow is eager to return home to Fort McKay.  But she’s scared of what she may find when she gets there. Audrey, her four children, and their Siberian Husky, Diesel, were evacuated from their northern community on May 7 after the fire threatening Fort McMurray moved towards Fort McKay First Nation.
 

Waking up from a mid-afternoon nap on a warm spring day Suda Wylie opened her eyes and was thrust into a nightmare.

Ever since Megan Whitmore ran from her house, strapped her naked baby in his car seat and fled ahead of advancing flames, the Fort McMurray mother says she can’t say enough nice things about Canadian Red Cross and its amazing donors.

Grateful replies from Alberta fire evacuees wanting to thank Canadians for their overwhelming support, poured into Canadian Red Cross just moments after emails went out Wednesday offering evacuees $50 million in immediate financial assistance.