Prince George, B.C. – Premier Christy Clark says  BC is not able to  offer fire fighting assistance to Alberta  as  that province battles the Fort McMurray fires, rather,  Alberta has requested that BC put its resources to handling the fires in the Peace Region.

One of those fires, the Siphon Creek fire,  is about 6 kilometers from the Alberta border, “What they really want  British Columbia to do is to make sure we are containing the fires  within our own borders so they don’t   jump the border’ says Premier Clark.  “Now if the Siphon Creek fire moves east , we certainly will follow it,  which isn’t normally what  we  would do.  Alberta firefighters are fighting as hard as they possibly can, and we don’t want to add to their burden, we want to try and take that  away a little bit.”

Clark says B.C. will be able to help provide Alberta with some of the equipment it has requested  and  some of the social assistance requested  “Unfortunately, we are so busy with  the fires in the Peace in British Columbia, we just don’t have any more resources that we can assist in Alberta. But everything they have asked us to do we are doing it, because Alberta is  our closest friend in Canada,  Albertans  are our closest friends in Canada and we want to be there for them in this time of need.  They were there for us  in 2003 in  Kelowna, and we want to be there for them.”

The  Fort McMurray fire is now  estimated to have destroyed 1,600 structures.  88 thousand people have been evacuated from the community, at this point, there  have been no reports of any loss of life or  any injuries.  Armed forces are mobilizing to  head to Fort McMurray.   The Fort McMurray  airport is now closed to all  flights.

The Canadian Red Cross is accepting donations to assist those  impacted by the  wildfire disaster.