About 200 troops have been deployed by the Canadian Armed Forces to help fight wildfires burning across Alberta, and 100 more will be joining the battle to tame the flames over the weekend, the province’s public safety minister said Thursday.
“Units will deploy to the Grande Prairie, Fox Creek and Drayton Valley areas soon, so Albertans will see movement on roads and in the air,” Mike Ellis, minister of public safety and emergency services, said in wildfire update news conference.
More than 6,500 applications have been received for emergency financial assistance, with $2 million in email transfers sent to evacuees and $77,000 in debit cards distributed. The number of evacuees is now 16,470, down from a high of about 31,000 at the peak of the emergency.
