Fort McMurray forest fire creates chaotic start to baby's life

A young couple and their newborn baby are among the tens of thousands of people who have been forced to flee Fort McMurray, Alta., due to a devastating wildfire that has destroyed some 1,600 homes.

Ina Dodge, the infant's maternal grandmother, says it's not exactly what she hoped the first day out of hospital would be like for her daughter or her six-pound, 11-ounce granddaughter, who is barely two days old.

"It's not been nice,"Dodge, who lives near Strathroy, Ont., told CBC Radio's Afternoon Drive in an interview on Wednesday.

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The sequence of events for her daughter Lindsay and son-in-law Dan looked like this: A birth on a Monday, an exit from hospital the following day and an order to evacuate their home that same afternoon.

Dodge said the couple threw what they needed in a pickup truck and got ready to go.

"Speaking with her [Wednesday], you know, she said there's still lots of things she wished she could have taken, but you're in such a state at the time, you can't really think straight and you just start throwing stuff in,"said Dodge.

Then came the challenge of getting out of Fort McMurray. They wanted to go north, but roads opened up to go south.

"They had a convoy of three different families that were going the same way, so they could kind of stick together,"Dodge said.

A member of the group was able to book three hotel rooms in Athabasca, Alta., which lies about 300 kilometres southwest of Fort McMurray.

"It took them over 12 hours,"said Dodge, noting thedrive from Fort McMurraytoAthabasca would normally take just two-and-a-half hours.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Dodge said the couple had no idea what had happened to their home.

On their way out of town, Dodge said "they saw fire on their street," but they didn't believe their own home was affected.

Dodge said her family's biggest concern was that her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter got to a safe place.

At this point, all Dodge can do is wait for updates, while sitting in her home in southwestern Ontario, three provinces away from the chaos.

"We're all upset,"she said.