The saying "We're going to Disneyland" took on a whole new meaning for family members of a Powell River woman who were forced to evacuate the raging fires in Fort McMurray on Tuesday, May 3.
Gay Vella waited anxiously in Powell River while eight members of her immediate family scrambled to get out of the city as forest fires spread within its limits late Tuesday night.
In communication with her family by text, Vella said she spent a sleepless night anticipating news of her sons Braden Michaud and David Vella and daughter Aeryn Vella and their families’ safe arrival to Calgary en route to a planned vacation in Disneyland.
"So there was a mess-up with their vacation plans, all right," said Vella. "Their city burned down!"
Vella said watching the fires spread in Fort McMurray on the news while the safety of her family was in question was traumatizing. To add to the worry, her daughter is currently expecting a third child.
"At first it was just at the edges of the city, but when they started talking about it jumping the roads and entering city limits, I really started to panic," she said. "I've got a pregnant daughter who should be preparing her home to welcome a newborn, not fleeing from it. This has been awful."
Vella said when her family received mandatory evacuation notices from Fort McMurray authorities they quickly gathered up their personal belongings and headed north in a convoy of three vehicles. They were en route to two separate work camps, where her son and son-in-law are employed, to secure flights out of the area.
Her daughter, son-in-law and two granddaughters made it out of Fort McMurray sooner when they were able to bypass gridlock and drive along the road shoulder, but her two sons were stuck behind in traffic.
The young family got the first flight out as soon as brother David arrived, around 1:30 am Wednesday morning, and ended up in Calgary the day before their scheduled flight to Disneyland.
"This is a good thing," said Vella. "They have somewhere to be for the next week and a half to keep the children calm and distracted and not thinking about this."
With most of her family now safe, Vella's remaining concern was with her older son Braden and his partner, who had arrived at their camp for fly-out but, due to being delayed in gridlock traffic for several hours, were behind a lineup of hundreds of other camp workers.
Vella said her older son and partner realized they had forgotten their passports for the Disneyland trip and attempted to drive 75 kilometres back to Fort McMurray to retrieve them. They soon realized getting back into the city was not safe or possible. Luckily, they ended up getting through Highway 63 and onto Edmonton shortly before flames leapt the highway and it was closed. Although they missed their family trip, Vella said she is just happy they are safe.
"It was a pure blessing they made it out on Highway 63 because they closed it just after he made it through," said Vella. "Even just thinking about this makes me upset."
Dozens of fires in and around Fort McMurray are still burning and an area of over 850 square kilometres has now been decimated. Vella's family were part of the estimated 25,000 people who initially headed north to oil camps, while the majority of the city's roughly 80,000 residents fled south.
"We're just so thankful everyone is okay," she said. "Those first 24 hours I was in a dead panic. When I finally got the calls saying they were all safe, it was a huge relief."
Vella’s children were born and raised in Powell River. She said they do not currently know the state of their homes or when they can return to Fort McMurray. A number of Powell River families have loved ones living and/or working in the area.
