A dad has described the moment his family were forced to flee from the huge wildfire that has destroyed hundreds of homes in Canada.
Martin Cairney, who swapped the north-east for Alberta, was at work when his partner Emma Shearer called to say the flames were approaching their home.
She grabbed their three children, as well as many belongings as possible, and drove to safety.
Meanwhile Mr Cairney, who lived in Inverurie for 15 years, began heading home in an attempt to salvage some more of their belongings, but the flames were so fierce he was forced to get to safety.
The 39-year-old said wildlife fires were frequent in the area and he had expected it to die out.
He said: “It’s normal to have fires here and we felt it was just like any other we have had in the past.
“It started last Sunday and everyone got up on the Tuesday morning, and there was no smoke so we thought everything had died out.
“But it turned out not to be like that and we all just had to go.
“When the report came out saying the golf course was on fire, which is about five or six kilometres away from the area we live in, Emma grabbed a bag and whatever clothes she had and called me at work.
“I wanted to grab as much things as possible.
“I told them just to head north and to get the hell out of the area.”
He also described his drive out of Fort McMurray.
He said: “There is a two-lane carriageway going north and a two-lane carriageway going south but all four were just heading north.
“The speed limit here is about 100kph and in some parts we were going anything between 130 and 160. It was surreal. It wasn’t really scary, I was more thinking about what the hell was happening.
“Basically it was like half of Aberdeen having to be evacuated.”
He is now staying in a friend’s cabin around 190 miles to the south of the town.
Ms Cairney, who is from Newmachar, is now planning to bring the children – Daniel, Nathan and Finlay – back to the north-east in the next few weeks.
A total of 800,000 people have been forced to flee Fort McMurray as a result of the wildlife fire.
