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Above: Motorbikes in the Four Seasons lot taking on the appearance of skeletons after the May 2016 fire. Inset: Gene Ouellette found out his shop and yard were on fire when a local radio DJ called him. Ouellette returned after the fire to find burned machinery covered is ashes. photos sUPPLIED BY gene ouellette.

Ouellette had been monitoring the situation from his home for the past few days, so he decided to leave work to see what it looked like from there. He said the roads were a little busier than they typically were at 1 p.m. on a weekday, but it didn’t seem like people were in a rush to leave. But when he arrived at home, he knew the situation was dire. “I could actually see flames coming up close to the house, so I called back to the shop and just told everybody to get out,” he said.

“An hour later it was gridlock. It was absolutely gridlock. I couldn’t make it back to the shop if I wanted to. By the time I was finished gathering up some stuff and my family made it home the evacuation was actually called. Everything was on fire by that time.” That included Four Seasons Power Sports. At the time, Ouellette didn’t know whether his shop would survive, until he received a phone call from a local radio DJ.

driving up the hill and he could see the business was on fire. That was my first knowledge of the business being on fire.” Ouellette said the first thing that crossed his mind was the safety of his employees. He said all of them got out safely, although one completely lost her home. Ouellette couldn’t return to his home until early June, but he did take a tour of Fort McMurray with the Fort McMurray Construction Association in mid-May.

“The DJ actually called me because he’s a customer and he said he was

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