An Alberta firefighter is sharing the harrowing story of losing his Fort McMurray home while he worked tirelessly to save other buildings in the community from a devastating wildfire.

Scott Germain, the acting fire captain of the Fort McMurray fire department, was working to save a row of houses on Walnut Crescent last week when he heard radio chatter about houses on his street also being on fire.

“At first, I hoped that it wasn’t my house,” he said Tuesday on CTV News Channel.

But Germain then received a call from his twin brother Jamie, who is also a firefighter, telling him that his home had been lost in the blaze.

Germain said he then called his wife, who is a 911 operator.

“We cried because we lost everything that we owned, pretty much, and then we had couple of minutes and then we said: ‘Let’s just keep going.’”

The Germains had become yet another victim of the blaze, which has destroyed 2,400 buildings and displaced more than 80,000 Fort McMurray residents.

The next day, Germain was working to put out a fire across the street from his house when the order came in to bulldoze all of the homes on that block.

“I actually watched my house being blown down,” he said.

Despite being a firefighter, he said he never expected his home to be destroyed by such a large wildfire.

“I don’t think that anyone ever imagined that something this crazy could happen,” Germain said.

All the couple has left is two bags worth of items Germain took from the home when the first evacuation orders were given.

But the firefighter said he did not let his own loss stop him from trying to save the homes of others.

“The truth of the matter is you don’t really have time to think about it,” he said.

Germain is now being hailed as a hero for continuing his duties as a firefighter despite suffering the devastating loss.

But the firefighter said the part of Fort McMurray that was saved is thanks to the collective effort of firefighters, donors and all other emergency response crews and support workers.

“Everyone here, as far as I’m concerned, is a hero.”