As a catastrophic wildfire situation continued to unfold in Los Angeles on Thursday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced her province is preparing to help with the natural disaster.
“We are preparing to deploy incident command team support to California, as well as additional wildfire-fighting resources, including water bombers and night-vision helicopters,” Smith said in a post on X.
As of early Thursday morning, officials in California said five people had already died because of the fires that broke out in the Los Angeles area earlier this week.
About 130,000 people in the area are under evacuation orders and more stories of evacuees’ harrowing escape from the flames are emerging while the fires continue to consume structures.
“Our hearts go out to everyone in California who has been evacuated due to the devastating forest fire,” Smith said.
“Good neighbours are always there for each other in times of need, and we will assist our American friends in any way they need during this crisis.”
“Alberta is also actively working with the federal government and the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) to assess California’s needs.”
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On Thursday afternoon, Canada’s minister of emergency preparedness posted on social media that he had spoken to a senior official with the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency “to offer Canada’s support in California’s fight against the wildfires.”
“Team Canada, with Ontario, Quebec and Alberta, is ready to deploy 250 firefighters, aircraft equipment and other resources as early as tonight,” Harjit Sajjan wrote in a post on X. “The Canadian Armed Forces are standing by to move personnel and equipment.
“Canada stands ready to support our American neighbours during this challenging time.”
Alberta is no stranger to the threat posed by wildfires in recent years with many municipalities and regions experiencing evacuation orders.
In July 2024, thousands were forced to evacuate Jasper National Park when fires tore through the region and destroyed a significant section of the Jasper townsite.
In 2016, wildfires in the Fort McMurray area spurred the evacuation of tens of thousands of people and destroyed about 2,400 structures.
The current wildfire situation in the Los Angeles area saw hurricane-force winds help fires burn through blocks of the coastal neighbourhood of Pacific Palisades as well as in Altadena.
On Wednesday night, officials were holding a news conference to provide an update on the situation as helicopters dumped water on flames burning only about one-and-a-half kilometres away from an area that includes the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the TCL Chinese Theatre.
–with files from The Associated Press
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