Fort McMurray evacuee wins lotto, will help charities that helped family

A Fort McMurrayresident who won$1 million says he willdonatesome of his winningsto thecharities that helped his family in May, when the entire city was evacuated in the face of a huge wildfire.

"We were evacuated from our house during the FortMcMurrayforest fires," Jason Wheelersaid in a news release.

"We got a lot of help from the Canadian Red Cross, food banks and the SPCA.I want to return the favour."

Wheelersaid hewon Lotto 649 onJuly 6 while he was camping.

"I checked the lotterywebsitewhen I was sitting around the fire and saw there was a million dollar winner in Alberta," he said. "I thought, 'How nice would that be?' "

The following day Wheeler took his ticket to astore and scanned it.

"I had a few tickets to scan," he said. "When I got to the big winner,I had to put it through the scanner a couple times."

On top of the donations, he will pay off his home and other debts, he said.

"This really gives me some peace of mind," he said. "I won't have a mortgage, so we have money to fall back on."