Article content

Michel Chamberland was sleeping at 2 p.m. Tuesday when he got a call from a friend who told him Beacon Hill was being evacuated. When Chamberlain looked out the window of his home, he saw the flames rise above the trees and heard the falling embers crackle in the wind.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or ‘Trucks were charred on the side': How one man took terrifying videos of the exodus from Fort McMurray Back to video

Chamberland, who was working as a power engineer for an oil company, could only grab his wallet, passport and a plastic bag filled with clothes before running out to his truck to escape the wildfires surrounding Fort McMurray.

His front and rear dash cams were rolling as he drove through Beacon Hill and the fires spread amongst the treelines, houses and even onto lawns.

“There was a sudden change of wind and you could see the flames moving in every direction,” Chamberland said. “You could feel the heat when (the fire) glowed bright orange.”

Chamberland posted a series of six dash cam videos on YouTube, giving viewers a first-hand look at the terrifying conditions evacuees faced during a mass exodus of 88,000 people. The videos have gone viral, accumulating nearly 200,000 views as of Thursday evening.

At one point in the videos, Chamberland appears to be driving through near-darkness and the only light visible is that of the sparks in the wind. Later, traffic passes closely by the rising fire and through a patch of grey and black smoke so thick that he had trouble seeing through it.