An indoor security camera gave the world a haunting five-minute glimpse of one of the worst wildfires in Canadian history as it roared through a living room and the homeowner watched it burn on his mobile phone.

Key points: Inferno captured on in-home security system

Inferno captured on in-home security system Authorities conduct mass-evacuation via road, air

Authorities conduct mass-evacuation via road, air Fires have engulfed 100,000 hectares of forest, claimed more than 1500 buildings

The video from a fixed camera in James O'Reilly's home began with a seemingly serene shot of red walls, a brown couch and a glowing fish tank before the view turned to heavy smoke, ash and flames outside the window, the slow breaking of glass and smoke filling the room.

Traffic and weather cameras and security webcams have allowed those who fled to remotely see if their homes have been lost to the fire that has consumed at least 1,600 buildings and forced 88,000 to evacuate the city of Fort McMurray.

Mr O'Reilly, 51, and his wife pulled out on Tuesday, driving through flames and ash to put distance between themselves and the inferno.

He pulled over 20 minutes outside Fort McMurray, his phone buzzing with an alarm from his in-home security system. He watched as the house was consumed by flames, live on the screen in his hand.

"My wife couldn't watch it, but at that point I thought we were dead coming through the flames like we did," Mr O'Reilly said.

"I was euphoric, so it didn't bother me. I knew the house was gone already, I knew we were alive, and I was so happy we were alive, the rest was all — who cares, right?"

Mr O'Reilly said he had installed the camera only a month before more because he is a technology geek than out of security concerns.

Entire neighbourhoods have been burned to the ground in Fort McMurray. No-one has died in the fires, but two people died in a car crash during the evacuation.

Police conduct risky road evacuation

A wildfire burns as evacuees head south of Fort McMurray on Highway 63. ( Reuters: Chris Wattie )

Canadian police led convoys of cars through the burning ghost town of Fort McMurray in a risky operation to get thousands of people to safety on the other side.

In the latest harrowing chapter of the drama triggered by monster forest fires in Alberta's oil sands region, the convoys of 50 cars at a time made their way through the city at about 50-60 kilometres per hour, TV footage showed.

Police took up positions at intersections along the way to keep evacuees from detouring to try to salvage belongings from charred homes and make sure the route remains safe from the fire.

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Three army helicopters hovered above to sound the alert if the flames got too close to the road, or cut it off completely, as has happened in recent days.

Those being evacuated — for a second time, after first abandoning their homes — had fled this week to an area north of the city where oil companies have lodging camps for workers.

But officials concluded they were no longer safe there because of shifting winds that raised the risk of them becoming trapped, and needed to move south to other evacuee staging grounds and eventually to Edmonton, 400 kilometres to the south.

Some 8,000 people were airlifted out of the northern enclave on Thursday on helicopters and planes. Officials expect the road convoys for the remaining 17,000 will take around four days.

State of emergency declared

The remains of a classic Triumph GT6 sit in a Fort McMurray neighbourhood. ( AFP/Getty Images: Scott Olson )

The government has declared a state of emergency in Alberta, a province the size of France that is home to one of the world's most prodigious oil industries.

Alberta has been left bone-dry after a period of unusually scant rainfall and unseasonably high temperatures.

More than 1,100 firefighters are battling 49 separate blazes across the province — seven of them totally out of control.

The fires have engulfed 100,000 hectares of forest including at least 12,000 in the area surrounding Fort McMurray, now the epicentre of the inferno.

Reuters/AFP

