‘Last time I ever saw my house’: One resident’s harrowing escape from Fort McMurray

WARNING: Explicit language

Jared Sabovitch’s final harrowing moments outside his home went by in a flash.

The Fort McMurray resident uploaded his hair-raising escape from the wildfire to Instagram, where hundreds of people have left comments.

Sabovitch’s video starts with a shot of a small blaze on a patch of grass, and then pans to a neighbourhood block engulfed in large flames. When Sabovitch gets in his car, he lets out an expletive and his breathing sounds laboured and tense. “Hasty exit,” he says as he starts to drive away. “That might have been the last time I ever saw my house right there.” Massive flames and heavy plumes of smoke fill the sky behind him.

“That’s the last time I ever saw my house, I know it,” he repeats, distraught.

Many of the comments left on the social media site are positive and filled with offers of help.

“Do you need anything? Willing to help,” asked roberta_murray_art.

“Please let it rain in Canada,” wrote jezzicajezzicajezzica. “Btw, glad you are safe.”

If you’d like to help the evacuees of Fort McMurray, you can donate to the Red Cross’ Alberta Fires Emergency Appeal.