We all wake up and assume that our home and family will be ok. This is how the morning started for Jordan Poitras on May 3rd in Fort McMurray.
BDNMB.CA was given exclusive to this story.
Jordan was working on a job site doing Tile work in a shower when he noticed all of the sudden things got darker and darker outside.
“I really didn’t think much about anything because we had lots of small forest fires in the area”
The homeowner told him that an area only a few minutes away was given an evacuation notice. At this point he decided to pack his tools and rush to the downtown area through gridlock.
“I was able to pick up my girlfriend then we went to get some clothes we didn’t have much time to react”
The two of them drove to Gregoire Lake to what they thought would be camping for one or two nights. “ Fuel was limited to 50 litres per person so we had to drive about 3.5 hours to Clyde before we were able to totally fill up”
From the media one common message was how the local Fire – Police and Emergency people were. “Police and Volunteers were amazing and worked so efficient and kept everyone very calm”
One thing is certain that you see the true colors of people in a disaster. “ lots of volunteers would have gas tanks on their trucks and help fill up vehicles that ran out of gas….. We didn’t eat for 24 hours and people not the side of the road were giving people wraps and sandwiches that is where I broke down” “ People were so amazing and generous”
Edmonton hotels were also very generous is waving pet fees and allowing pets to stay in hotels.
BDNMB ask Jordan if he would return to Fort Mac? “ Some of my good friends lost everything and I never want to go through that again"
Currently he has no idea of the status of his rental property but stated that an area three blocks away from where he lived that 12 trailers had burned down.
Jordan is originally from Brandon does Tile work now for Contractors Corner.
