Former Harrow resident helping out every way she can in Fort McMurray

Sarah Golden was supposed to be heading into work at an Edmonton grocery store on Monday.

Instead she's out trying to help people affected by the Fort McMurray, Alta., fire that has forced 80,000 people to flee the area and destroyed an estimated 1,600 buildings.

It's what she's been doing since she heard a story about a family who was waiting on the side of a highway, with no one to pick them up.

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"I heard that a man, a wife, two young kids and two cats were stranded on Highway 63 and a tow truck, still on Wednesday morning, would not dispatch anybody to go help them unless there were only two people in the car," Golden told CBC Radio's Windsor Morning in an interview.

"Just knowing that there was somebody like that, I needed to go up and do something like that for somebody else. You know, just I needed to…there wasn't an 'I can't' any more at that point."

The 24-year-old former Harrow, Ont., resident and her boyfriend, Daniel Salive, have since given lifts to some people in need and they have helped ferry supplies to people who are staying in an evacuation camp.

Golden said she will keep helping as many people as she can, even if she loses her job.

"I'm not going into work again today," she said, when speaking with Windsor Morning.

"I'm either going to call in or if they tell me no, it's going to maybe be a parting time between me and that company."

The story about the family caught Golden's attention, but so did the fact that she is able to help.

"I never had the ability to just drop everything and go help somebody," she said. "And I realize that once I thought about it, there's nothing that really holds me back from wanting to help."

Golden suggests that for people who don't live close enough to get involved in the same way, donations to the Red Cross would be a good way of providing some help to Fort McMurray.

The federal government has said it will match Fort McMurray donations made to the Red Cross.