Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced at a press conference that a state of emergency had been issued in the province.
– We have issued a state of emergency for the safety and health of Albertans, said Smith during a press conference.
She also stated that the spring in Alberta has been warm and dry, which meant that “it only took a couple of small sparks for really scary fires to flare up”.
– Those circumstances have resulted in the unprecedented situation that we now find ourselves in, said Smith.
So far, 122,000 hectares of land have been ravaged by fire.
Fire risk in several areas
According to the authorities’ fire warnings, there is an extreme fire danger in almost all of Alberta, large parts of the neighboring province of Saskatchewan and several areas in the Northwest Territories.
The country’s crisis preparedness minister, Bill Blair, writes on Twitter that Ottawa is