‘I’m not going to have a house to go home to’: Nova Scotia family flees Fort McMurray wildfire

A Nova Scotia family says they think they will lose their home in the wildfire that’s currently ravaging Fort McMurray.

Lacey and Dennis Bowie left the Timberlea neighbourhood of Fort McMurray around 9 p.m. Tuesday night. The two drove with their two young children and their black Lab through the night on their way to stay with family in Calgary.

“Its stressful,” Lacey told Global News as the family drove south. “It’s starting to hit me that things are real.”

“It is very overwhelming.”

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It usually takes five hours to drive from Fort McMurray to Edmonton, but with thousands trying to leave the city, they’d been driving for well over seven hours and not yet done.

WATCH BELOW: Wildfires burning in Fort McMurray have forced the evacuation of the entire city

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The couple’s children, 20-month-old Martin and eight-month-old Sally, slept through most of the drive.

“The kids have been like troopers, god love ’em,” Lacey said. “They’re still sleeping,” Dennis chimed in.

Houses lost in Fort McMurray fire

Wildfires have seriously damaged some Fort McMurray neighbourhoods and levelled homes. Twelve trailers were lost in the Timberlea neighbourhood where the Bowies live, but there’s no update yet on their house.

“I’m thinking I’m not going to have a house to go home to,” Lacey said. “The wildfire updates say that today is actually supposed to be worse than yesterday.”

“To say everything is surreal right now is an understatement. I can’t even wrap my head around what’s going on, I don’t even know where we go from here to be honest.”

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Lacey said she packed important paperwork like passports, but says she only brought enough clothing for one or two days because she thought they would be back home sooner rather than later.

“It might not be as simple as spend a day or two with our cousins in Calgary and go back home to a house,” Lacey said.

READ MORE: Live updates of Fort McMurray wildfire

An evacuation order was sent out for the entire city at 6:20 p.m. MT Tuesday. The family tried to leave then but the roads were too congested and they turned back, Lacey said. They tried again once the south bound Highway 63 was reopened.

READ MORE: Fort McMurray wildfire: Army at the ready, but how will they help?

Dennis works for a surveying company in Alberta, and Lacey also works in the oil sands and is on maternity leave. She says she’s supposed to return to work next month.