Residents fleeing Canada wildfires short of fuel, food

By Topher Seguin
GREGOIRE LAKE, Alberta, May 4 (Reuters) - Thousands of
people fleeing wildfires in a remote Canadian oil town faced
shortages of fuel and food on Wednesday but the frantic
evacuation also brought stories of shared resources and babies
born in work camps.
About 88,000 residents of the western Canadian city of Fort
McMurray have been evacuated as a massive wildfire tore through
the city, burning down 1,600 structures amid hot and dry weather
in the heart of the oil sands industry.
With some fleeing north to work camps operated by energy
companies and others clogging the one highway south out of the
city, evacuees scrambled to find gasoline and a place to sleep
as ash rained down upon the roads and the smell of soot
permeated the air.
Twitter filled with offers of free food, housing and animal
care as worried evacuees asked officials and strangers alike
about the status of their homes.
Outside an Edmonton arena where evacuees are being housed,
fuel hauler John Mihai, 63, said he stayed up watching a wall of
flame as little as a mile away from his Fort McMurray home.
"You can't go to sleep when you see fire knocking on the
door," Mihai said.
"It was really close," he added. He boarded a bus in the
early hours with just a duffle bag of food, a few pairs of socks
and some photographs.
A steady stream of cars could be seen traveling south from
the city on Wednesday afternoon, while thick black clouds
billowed on the horizon. Some families fled to Edmonton, the
closest major city 435 km (270 miles) to the south, and others
took refuge in smaller communities just outside the danger zone.
Some 100 evacuees pitched tents near Gregoire Lake, about 15
km (9 miles) west of the hamlet of Anzac southeast of Fort
McMurray. Their cars, trucks and trailers lined the beach, and
nearby gas stations had run out of fuel.
Officials at the Anzac Recreation Centre, where some 3,000
evacuees took refuge, brought in more cots to supplement the
hundreds that have filled up its hockey rink.
At the local grocery store, where depleting stocks were just
replenished, five people at a time were let in while nearly 50
waited outside.
Two pregnant evacuees gave birth on Tuesday at the Noralta
Lodge at Fort McMurray Village, a facility about 35 km (22
miles) north of the city that normally houses oil sands workers,
a manager said, adding that the mothers and babies were doing
well.
In Conklin, south of Fort McMurray, evacuees have been
checking into work camps since Wednesday morning, said Chantelle
Desjarlais, a security guard.
The evacuees at the camps and gas stations, many of whom
left without the chance to pack supplies, appeared lost and sad,
and "the parents looked like they were trying to be happy for
the kids," Desjarlais said.
"I was crying when I was having breakfast because I was
seeing the little kids and I just couldn't say anything."