A wildfire in Alberta is on track to become the costliest natural disaster to ever hit Canada.
The unbridled Canada wildfire that's been ripping through Alberta's oil sands country since May 1 is still growing and could take months to fully extingiush, officials said Saturday.
One resident even had the misfortune of watching the blaze engulf his own home via in-house security surveillance.
Security cam gives Fort McMurray man live view of his burning home https://t.co/QGqwRSxzNmhttps://t.co/XWT5dO5B5p
— CBC News (@CBCNews) May 6, 2016
As James O'Reilly joined an exodus of thousands who've fled Fort McMurray, he watched his home become engulfed by flames live on his iPhone.
The fire took less than two minutes to destroy O'Reilly's living room. He'd left the home behind just minutes earlier, CBC reports.
Nearly 90,000 people from in and around the industry boom town have been forced out of their homes in the week since the fire began.
And as the blaze continues to grow, officials say the disaster is on track to become the costliest in Canada's history.
Approaching 500,000 acres by Sunday, the fire could double in size before the disaster is all over.
For Fort McMurray residents, the disaster has only begun. Entire neighborhoods have been torched by the historic blaze.
Read: Family Flees Fast-Moving Wildfire in National Park: 'We Didn't Have Time to Think'
For those homeowners whose properties are not among the 1,600 buildings that now lay in ruins, the town remains too dangerous to re-enter.
Gas service has been shut off to the town, the power grid is damaged and the water supply has been rendered undrinkable.
When residents finally can return, the fire may actually still be burning elsewhere.
“Unless we have a significant rain event of 100 millimetres of rain, we expect to be out fighting the fire in the forested area for months to come,” Chad Morrison with Alberta Wildfires told a press conference on Saturday.
Read: Heroic Family Dog Leads Firefighters to Children Trapped in Police Officer's Burning Home
