Convoy carries another 7K stranded people south through Fort McMurray

The sign for the Super 8 motel stands alone, amidst a pile of rubble.

It's a motel that used to house hundreds of oilfield workers that would make their way up to Fort McMurray, Alta.Beside it runs Highway 63, where the big trucks once drove north or south.

Saturday, thousands of evacuees made an orderly procession on that highway, journeying south from the work camps they had been stranded at for days.

When evacuations beganTuesday, residents had a choice to make.

South to Edmonton or north to the work camps?

Many, about 25,000, chose or were forced by the flames to go north.

They were effectively stranded there until Friday.

• READ MORE|Fort McMurray exodus: Convoy of evacuees get 1st glimpse of fire-ravaged city

Over Friday and Saturday, more than 14,500 people made the procession south, driving past the sign for a now non-existent hotel.

"My heart was breaking," said Marisa Heath, one of those in Friday's convoy.

"It was nothing but burnt everywhere. It was devastating to see it."

Fort McMurray convoy

8 years ago

Duration 2:57

CBC's Briar Stewart in Fort McMurray watches as a convoy of evacuees moves through the city and the flames surrounding it

Tasti Abubaker, a 25-year-old heavy duty operator, drove by the Super 8when it was in flames.

"We saw flames in the distance and we couldn't tell what it was but as we were passing [the Super 8], boom, the roof caved in," said Abubaker.

"There was no more roof, the roof was gone. You would look at what was still standing and all you saw was flames."