Fort McMurray man watches via doorbell camera as firefighters try to save his home

Amidst the much larger battle against the Fort McMurray wildfire, a much more intimate – but no less dramatic – fight was taking place.

On May 3, a Fort McMurray man’s doorbell camera captured the desperate battle as a crew of firefighters worked to save his home from the advancing flames.

Ken Bell, 40, recently had a new security system installed in his home in the North Parsons neighbourhood, one that included a doorbell camera.

It was through this camera that Bell, an oilpatch worker and longtime Fort McMurray resident, watched as firefighters battled to save the house he and his two children call home.

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At one point on the tape, you can hear one of the firefighters telling another to get out before it’s too late. But they continue to work on the fire – blasting the home with water – until the flames are extinguished.

“They’re amazing,” Bell told the Edmonton Journal about the crew that saved his home. “Just watching how they go about it, how hard it must be, how fit they are and how knowledgeable they are.”

“When you watch the video, and you see all the things they did to put the fire out and know where to look, it’s pretty impressive. They know what they’re doing.”

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Global’s Mike Drolet spoke with Fort McMurray firefighter Dale Chaffey, who confirmed it was his team seen battling the fire in the video.

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“It wasn’t my truck, but it was my shift, some of the guys on my shift,” Chaffey told Global News, before admitting he was so exhausted he wasn’t even sure what day it was.

Meanwhile, Wood Buffalo Fire Chief Darby Allen said 85 per cent of Fort McMurray is still intact.

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Allen said people may be under the impression that most of the city has been levelled, but that’s just not the case.

He said between 40 and 50 per cent of Fort McMurray could have been destroyed if firefighters hadn’t been able to hold back the flames at key points.

“You might be seeing images today of the area you live and indeed you might be seeing images of where your home was,” he said. “This was a horrible fire. Whatever we tried to do, it went a different way… We did our very best.”