88,000 people evacuated from Fort MacMurray, Alberta, and more being evacuated from surrounding communities as we post.
Fort McMurray fire: Evacuees try to outrun inferno -- again
The raging wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alberta, raced toward his home, swallowing everything in its path.
"We had next to no warning," the 27-year-old said. "I was able to grab some clothes, toiletries, a hard drive and laptop, passport and my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu belt."
Spring escaped just in time. His entire neighborhood of over 100 homes burned to the ground.
"Absolutely everything was leveled," he said. The only things left standing: burnt trees, a light post and a few chimneys.
But Spring doesn't have time to think about losing his home. He's also the safety and operations director at Phoenix Heli-Flight, which is busy evacuating hospital patients and helping firefighters by dropping water from the sky.
"It's not difficult at all to keep working and not think of it," he said. "Just knowing that everything we lost is replaceable is comforting."
1,600 homes destroyed
The mammoth inferno, which started Sunday, has torched at least 1,600 homes, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said.
It's also scorched more than 100 square kilometers (39 square miles) of land -- twice the size of Manhattan.
Authorities ordered more than 88,000 people to evacuate -- including the entire city of Fort McMurray.
But not everyone would leave, Spring said.
"We took a lot of women and children" in helicopters, he said. "A lot of the husbands, they wanted to stay. ... A lot of them built their houses themselves. That's the spirit up here."
If the fire got too close, they reasoned, the men would try to flee on their boats on the Clearwater River, Spring said.
On the run again
But many who heeded the evacuation orders had to flee a second time as the unpredictable fire headed toward an emergency shelter in Anzac.