(Adds update from provincial briefing)
OTTAWA, May 11 (Reuters) - Canada brought in the
military to help firefighting and recovery efforts in Alberta on
Thursday after wildfires forced thousands to evacuate homes and
prompted several oil and gas producers to shut operations in
Canada's main crude-producing province.
The armed forces were deployed after Ottawa approved
Alberta's request for federal support to tackle the more-than
100 wildfires that ignited across the western Canadian province
in the last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
The widespread blazes have marked an intense start to
wildfire season in Alberta and put Premier Danielle Smith's
disaster management skills - as well as her party's policies -
under the microscope ahead of a provincial election on May 29.
A couple of days of cooler weather gave firefighters some
reprieve and allowed some oil and gas companies to restart
shuttered production on Wednesday, though forecasts show
temperatures surging higher over the weekend.
"I know there have been some lower temperatures this week
and even some rain in a few areas. And though this is always
good news, people shouldn’t take this as permission to let their
guard down," Alberta's Minister of Public Safety and Emergency
Services Mike Ellis told a briefing Thursday.
It is "absolutely not a time to be complacent," said
Christie Tucker, information unit manager with Alberta Wildfire.
“A few scattered showers is not going to reduce the
number of wildfires significantly in the province. You’re
looking at months as far as extinguishing these wildfires.”
Producers had shut in at least 319,000 barrels of oil
equivalent per day (boepd), or 3.7% of the country's production,
earlier this week and more than 30,000 people were forced to
flee their homes. As of Thursday afternoon the province
estimated there were 16,470 evacuees.
The military is going to "provide firefighting support and
airlift resources, assist with the evacuation of isolated
communities, and help keep people safe," Trudeau said on
Twitter.
Around 200 troops have been deployed around the province,
Tucker said, and another 100 would be deployed over the weekend.
The troops will establish bases of operations, before moving
to the Grande Prairie, Fox Creek and Drayton Valley areas of the
province over the next few days, Alberta's provincial government
said in a statement.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa and Anna Mehler Paperny
in Toronto, editing by Deepa Babington)
