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The first evacuation orders Tuesday came at 4:15 p.m., when the municipality ordered the evacuation of Abasand, Beacon Hill, Gregoire, Waterways, Draper, Saline Creek and Grayling Terrace. Residents were told to head to the Anzac Recreation Centre, about a one-hour drive south of Fort McMurray.

As they headed south, those people saw much of their city on fire. The immolation of the Centennial Trailer Park was nearly complete, with the flames stripping all that was flammable off the metal skeletons of mobile homes and vehicles.

Trees 20 metres from Highway 63 were burning, with thick smoke covering the highway. The McMurray Métis office was in flames and looked ready to collapse under the heat.

It was impossible to see into Waterways, which was hidden in yellow and orange smoke, but trees and buildings were burning.

Hundreds of trucks, cars, motorcycles and mobile homes had pulled over, engines choked by smoke or running low on gas. People sat dazed, many in tears.

At the turnoff toward Highway 881 and Anzac, most continued south toward Edmonton. At a gas station outside the Fort McMurray First Nation No. 468, the gravity of the day finally hit those that had stopped for gas or to take a break and call loved ones.

Merv Hansen was working construction at the Fort McMurray Islamic Centre in Abraham’s Land when he left. For most of the afternoon he could see one plume of smoke in the distance. He ran home when that turned into four, but arrived too late.

“The house I was in was gone,” Hansen said. “The smoke was so thick and there were still people going into their homes.”

Despite watching his home burn, he remained stoic as he waited in line for a gas pump.

William Blundon and his fiancée, Brenda Byrne, had recently returned to their home in Prairie Creek after staying at a friend’s place in Thickwood. Prairie Creek had been evacuated Sunday evening, but that order was lifted Monday.

Both they and their friends fled Tuesday.