In an interview with the Globe and Mail, White described a scene that resembled a “zombie apocalypse.”

As she drove south, “flames jumped over the highway” and engulfed a gas station to her left. “It was torched,” White said. Everywhere she turned, there was fire:

People were driving on the shoulder. There were flames maybe 15 feet high right off the highway. There was a dump truck on fire — I had to swerve around it — and there was a pickup truck on fire as well. The entire trailer park on my right was in flames. Roofs were coming down.

Abnormally warm weather and dry conditions combined to make Alberta’s boreal forest a “tinder box,” the Associated Press reported. While the wildfire appeared manageable over the weekend, it grew into an inferno Tuesday, buoyed by strong winds and dissolving into showers of ash.

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The flames tore through the city, hitting several neighborhoods and a trailer park before striking the downtown core. Before nightfall, a mandatory evacuation order was issued. Fort McMurray’s 80,000 residents needed to go — but where?

Those with cars were directed to Highway 63, where vehicles were at a near-standstill. Residents watched as flames jumped the road.

As the frantic residents fled, it was uncertain whether they would have places to go. According to the CBC, food and lodging were offered at nearby oil-sands work camps, but even those — which generally accommodate thousands of employees — became overwhelmed.

Three miles south of Fort McMurray, a former resident of the town offered evacuees free lodging at his resort.

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“This is just devastating, but it’s amazing how the people have pulled together,” the establishment’s owner, Curtis Galas, told the CBC.

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On Twitter, under the hashtags #ymm and #ymmfire — YMM is the airport code for Fort McMurray International Airport — other establishments announced that they would be opening their doors to those seeking shelter.

While no serious injuries have been reported, residents despaired of the damage to their homes, many of which have been lost to the flames. No estimates have been released of the number affected.

Carol Christian, who escaped with her son and cat, said reality set in as she drove from her burning neighborhood.

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“You look up and then you watch all the trees candle-topping … up the hills where you live and you’re thinking: ‘Oh, my God. We got out just in time,'” Christian told the Associated Press. “It’s an overwhelming feeling to think that you’ll never see your house again.”

When the fire entered Centennial Trailer Park, John Davidson’s home was the second to go. He watched as flames enveloped the neighborhood, thinking of the valuables he would never get back. He and his girlfriend had lived in the park for more than a year, the CBC reported, and kept their cars and two snowmobiles there.

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“Everything I worked for the last two years,” Davidson told the CBC, “it’s all gone.”

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Authorities warned that things would get worse before they got better. Equally dry conditions and fierce winds are expected Wednesday.

Fort McMurray Fire Chief Darby Allen said Tuesday was “the worst day of my career.”

“It’s a nasty, ugly fire, and it hasn’t shown any forgiveness,” Allen told the CBC.

At one point, a hundred firefighters were battling the blaze, but they pulled back because the fire’s erratic behavior endangered their safety. Crews then used nine air tankers and more than a dozen helicopters to drop water streams and fire retardants on the blaze, according to the Globe and Mail.

Fort McMurray is home to the Athabasca Oil Sands, the largest single oil deposit in the world, containing an estimated 1.74 trillion barrels of bitumen, the core raw material in the production of synthetic crude oil.

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Now residents of the industrial city are wondering when they will be able to return home.

As White made her way out, the pandemonium unfolded before her like a scene from a movie: Pedestrians breathed through wet clothes, police officers sported oxygen masks, a sheet of debris hit her car.

“It was very, very scary,” she told the Globe and Mail. “I felt like I was in a vacuum bag and all the air was being sucked out.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article mistakenly stated that the Athabasca Oil Sands contain 174 trillion barrels of bitumen. They contain 1.74 trillion.