Ottawa readying to help Alberta fight wildfires: ‘We will be there’ | 24CA News
The federal authorities “will be there” to assist Alberta battle roughly 100 wildfires presently blazing within the province, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says.
Ottawa’s dedication comes after the provincial authorities formally submitted a request for help, which Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair confirmed as receiving Monday afternoon.
Ottawa can also be working with the Canadian Red Cross to arrange an identical fund to assist Albertans impacted by the blazes, Trudeau mentioned.
“We will be there to help,” he mentioned after talking with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith earlier within the day.
“We talked a lot about the different ways the federal government can help, and we will be working to make sure that we’re supporting Albertans right across the province as necessary, as we always do. The federal government is there to be there for people, and we will continue to do that in Alberta and elsewhere where people are affected by extreme weather events.”
Around 100 wildfires continued to burn in Alberta on Monday, with 1000’s compelled to flee from their houses.
More than 40 constructions, largely houses, have been misplaced on the Little Red River Cree Nation, which incorporates three communities in northern Alberta. In Fox Lake, about 550 kilometres north of Edmonton, the province mentioned a 4,400-hectare wildfire destroyed 20 houses, an RCMP detachment, a retailer and the group’s water remedy plant.
Cooler temperatures and a little bit of rain over the following few days are anticipated to ship some reduction for firefighters, however provincial officers warned the reprieve isn’t anticipated to final lengthy, and lightning is sparking extra blazes.
A provincial state of emergency was declared Saturday.
Blair mentioned Alberta wants extra firefighters, heavy tools for infrastructure, help for airlifts and extra policing. He promised additional particulars later within the day.
“We have a rather robust, well-established program of requests for assistance and we now have that document from the province, but the work on that began a number of days ago,” he mentioned.
“Many of those resources have been mobilized over the past few days. We believe we’ll be able to act on the request from the province as quickly as possible, but we know many of the organizations and federal departments responsible for delivering those resources have been getting ready for the past few days.”
So far this yr, wildfires have burned about 380,000 hectares throughout the province.
— with recordsdata from The Canadian Press
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