Google Speech-to-Text API Automatic Transcription (Chirp). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:12of want news,
00:00:13of we are here for you, cbc news, ottowa and here,
00:00:16winipeg,
00:00:17of white
00:00:19of horse, here, an apartment, and they say when they
00:00:23saw the fire come up over the the hill and
00:00:27and saw those flames at around 7:30 uh, even before
00:00:31evacuations
00:00:33a a orders came, they left and they knew it was time to go, and they came uh this way to West
00:00:37Colona, spent the night here in the arena, they they said that
00:00:40they've put uh slats like wood wood flooring
00:00:44over top
00:00:45of the ice and uh and have caughts and that's where they slept, and
00:00:49they said it was rather cool and cold, but uh
00:00:53somewhat welcome after escaping all the the smoke
00:00:57and uh the the the uh the... guy i was speaking
00:01:01to, he showed me photos that uh his
00:01:04contacts have
00:01:06of sent to him, people that uh were
00:01:10in the area as the fire went through summerland
00:01:13and and it was just devastating the photos that he showed me
00:01:17of burnt homes
00:01:18of the fire uh in in areas close to
00:01:22downtown, so he's not 100% sure of what has happened
00:01:26to his home, his apartment building, but he's he's preparing for...
00:01:30the worst and and for him that is all of his his
00:01:34electronics, he runs a 3D printing business and a tech support
00:01:38business
00:01:38so you can think of all the computers and and 3d printers and all the
00:01:42of stuff that they weren't able to load up and and grab and leave
00:01:46as as they came here and he's worried what's
00:01:48of going to happen to his
00:01:50of livelihood uh if uh if the the worst did happen so
00:01:54really yeah challenging
00:01:55of times for folks here as as they're trying to uh trying to find
00:02:00place to stay and uh so waiting in line to
00:02:04be to uh be you know helped by the
00:02:07volunteers here and and then find a place to stay
00:02:11and maybe get some sleep for once. yeah, brity, thank you so much for
00:02:15this. yeah, you bet Sarah, thank you. that's our colleague Brady
00:02:18Stracken, he has been following this uh bald range fire as since it
00:02:22erupted yesterday evening and many people having to leave their homes in the
00:02:26dead of night. i'd like to welcome our audience on newsnet as well, thank you. so much for
00:02:30joining us, we have special live programming as we're covering the bald
00:02:34range fire that erupted in and around Somerland last night.
00:02:38I'm Sarah Penton, my colleague Tannie Fletcher also has been uh covering the story
00:02:42of from our Vancouver studio. I'm joining you from our Colona studio. And Tannie, we are
00:02:46standing by to hear from the Premier. That's right, Sarah, this has be this will be the
00:02:49first time we've heard from BC's premier since this uh
00:02:52of fire started,
00:02:53and as you mentioned, we're welcoming our CBC News Network audience from right
00:02:56across the country. Let's give you some bullet points,
00:02:59the headlines of this. while we wait for the premier, of course once he walks
00:03:02up uh we will cut live to that press conference. in the
00:03:06meantime uh we can tell you that some 20,000 people have
00:03:10been ordered to leave. this is the Summerland area, 12,00 residents
00:03:14of Summerland itself, the district, the municipality, and that
00:03:18includes as well 8,00 people just further north
00:03:21of there in the Peachland area. so this is all to keep you some geographical
00:03:25context along lake Okenagen, on the north end of that, may
00:03:29sound familiar if you're... watching across the country, that's where the
00:03:32other fires have been burning near Vernon, so we've had such a
00:03:36developing fluid situation in this region for the past
00:03:39week. um, this fire sparked up last night, 5 p.m.
00:03:43local time, and it spread very quickly. it doubled in
00:03:47size
00:03:48of uh of this morning, it now covers 95 square kilometers. uh, we see
00:03:51premier David EB up at the podium, let's bring you that press conference
00:03:54live. good afternoon
00:03:56everyone. This
00:04:00afternoon, many British
00:04:02of Colombians are receiving devastating news from the south of Ogenhagan. Since
00:04:06first reported yesterday
00:04:08of evening, the bald range wildfire grew quickly and moved into the summerland and
00:04:12surrounding areas. Homes been lost and properties have been
00:04:16destroyed. Some people
00:04:18of became trapped as conditions changed
00:04:22very quickly and needed to be rescued. It remains a
00:04:25of very dynamic and threatening
00:04:27situation everyone affected. you are not
00:04:30alone, british
00:04:32of colombians are with you. this new fire marks a
00:04:36significant shift
00:04:37in in the overall fire situation in our province.
00:04:41today, based on the advice of emergency officials, minister Greene has declared a
00:04:44provincial state of
00:04:48of emergency. of with this new fast moving wildfire and the large scale
00:04:51evacuation that took place overnight, emergency officials advise us
00:04:55that they now need the specific tools that enables available to them a
00:04:59moment's notice. should they be needed? the minister and
00:05:03emergency personnel who are with us today will be able to provide details on
00:05:07what this will mean on the ground.
00:05:10of through the night, first responders, wildfire crews,
00:05:14search and rescue teams, RCMP, local community
00:05:17members, government leaders, volunteers, and
00:05:21emergency officials worked tirelessly. The
00:05:25stories that are starting to come out are heroic, many people put themselves
00:05:29at risk to save others. We thank them for their courage
00:05:33and for their commitment. Right now, our
00:05:37full focus is saving lives and supporting rescue
00:05:40efforts. Air evacue.
00:06:12allow wildfire crews and RCNP officers to focus their efforts where they
00:06:16are needed. Conditions are extremely dangerous
00:06:20and changing minute by minute. The fires are
00:06:24moving incredibly quickly. Please follow the directions
00:06:28of local officials. I know many families are
00:06:31facing an unimaginable day today. People have lost their
00:06:35homes and many
00:06:39people have been displaced. Others are waiting for news about.
00:06:43support is being mobilized, including emergency accommodation
00:06:47and other essential services. key focus right
00:06:51now is making sure evacuees have safe place to go. if you can
00:06:55stay with friends and families, please do.
00:06:58currently we believe we do have sufficient accommodation and are arranging
00:07:02additional resources should they be needed for the most
00:07:05vulnerable. we are working closely with local authorities and
00:07:09partners to find accommodation and assistance for those
00:07:14The hours and days ahead will be challenging, this fire
00:07:18remains extremely active, but
00:07:22when people need help, that's when British Colombians step
00:07:25up. We will stand as a province with
00:07:28affected communities. We will support those who have lost so
00:07:32much, and we will do everything we can to keep people
00:07:35safe. Our thoughts are with every single
00:07:39person, family and community affected. I'll
00:07:43now turn it over to Minister Green before we hear from emergency
00:07:45officials.
00:07:54Thank you, Premier. Good afternoon everyone. I'm Kelly Greene, Minister of Emergency
00:07:58Management and climate readiness. We are facing
00:08:02intense and herowing situation in the Sommerland
00:08:05area, and it is so difficult to be evacuated
00:08:09and not know when you will be able to return. not know what you'll
00:08:13be returning to, whether your home and your community will still be
00:08:17there, and the wait for news about the
00:08:20well-being of your loved ones can be absolutely
00:08:23devastating. From the start of this fire season,
00:08:27I
00:08:27have been very clear that at every step, our focus is going to be
00:08:31ensuring that the teams on the ground have the tools that
00:08:35they need to respond and
00:08:37save lives and protect communities, and that we're relying on the
00:08:41expert advice of emergency. management professionals and the BC wildfire
00:08:44service, and today, based on that expert advice, I
00:08:48am declaring a state of provincial emergency, with the large
00:08:52evacuation that we saw overnight, and how quickly the wildfire
00:08:56situation is evolving in the Okenagan, and also around the
00:08:59province, we know that we need the tools of a
00:09:03provincial state of emergency at the ready, in case we need to enact those
00:09:07specific powers a moment's notice. It will
00:09:11give us the ability.
00:09:12to do things like commander accommodations or bring in local travel
00:09:16restrictions in specific areas if it should become
00:09:19necessary. right now there are no travel restrictions
00:09:23in place, but at this time we're asking everyone to avoid travel to
00:09:27Summerland and affected communities, given the large
00:09:30scale the evacuation and the number of people and emergency crews
00:09:34on the move. we will not hesitate to take further steps
00:09:38under the state of emergency should that become necessary, and for any...
00:09:42when planning travel inbc, there are many parts the
00:09:45province that are still ready and ready to
00:09:49welcome visitors, so please check emergency info
00:09:53bc and drive BC before you undergo your
00:09:56travel. i also want to make sure that we're
00:10:00thanking everyone who is working flat out to help their
00:10:03neighbors, to help their friends and family and to
00:10:07the healthcare workers that are supporting patients and evacuating long-term
00:10:11care residents. and to the tourism and post
00:10:14secondary sectors in the area that are mobilizing
00:10:18accommodations wherever they can, and there are people from every
00:10:22walk of life that are stepping up to do whatev they can to help
00:10:26their community, thank you from the
00:10:29province. I also want to acknowledge that while our eyes have
00:10:32been on the images coming from Summerland, the
00:10:36wildfire situation in the rest the province continues
00:10:39evolve. And for anyone who has been evacuated in the
00:10:43Somerland area or other parts the province, emergency support
00:10:46services are available. They will help you with your basic needs
00:10:50under an evacuation, like accommodation, food, clothing, and other
00:10:54necessities. This can be accessed in person at reception
00:10:58center or register online at
00:11:00ess.gov.bc.ca.
00:11:04and if you need help accessing these services, you can also phone the BC
00:11:08evacue helpline
00:11:101800-387-42-58.
00:11:15please continue to follow the instructions of your local government or first
00:11:18nation who will inform you when it is safe to return. these
00:11:22are challenging days for our province. and we will continue to do
00:11:26everything possible to keep people safe and
00:11:28supported. Thank you. I'll pass it over to Cliff Chatman with
00:11:32the BC Wildfire
00:11:33Service.
00:11:38Good afternoon and thank you Minister Green and Premier Evie. My name is
00:11:41Cliff Chapman. I'm the director of provincial operations for B.C. Wildfire
00:11:45Service. Often I'm asked to come to these media availabilities and provide
00:11:49operational updates on what's happening with the wildfire situation across
00:11:52BC. And I will provide a brief update. on the bald range fire, but
00:11:56before I do so, I want to offer my and BC Weldfire
00:12:00service as an organizations's empathy and and condolences for the
00:12:03losses and the the really significant fire that entered
00:12:07Summerland last night. This is many people's worst nightmare,
00:12:11and as an organization, this is one the more challenging fires that we have ever
00:12:15faced, and we're only in our second operational period. I
00:12:19also, before I give an operational
00:12:20update, would like to offer my sincere thank you to the BC
00:12:24wildfire. emergency management and climate readiness, fire departments,
00:12:28RCMP, local governments, EOCs, first nation,
00:12:32first nations, pilots of our aircraft, and everyone else who is involved in
00:12:36the effort, everyone showed up at the fire yesterday wearing their own shirts and their
00:12:40own patches on their shoulders and quickly started to work
00:12:43together to save lives. I am certain that the the
00:12:47outcome of this event would have been significantly worse, had we not
00:12:51worked together multi-jurisdictionally across this fire.
00:12:55everybody stepping up to save people's lives in summerland, our
00:12:59firefighting aircraft quickly became evacuation aircraft, our
00:13:03firefighting response crews quickly started knocking on doors to get people out
00:13:07the way. we worked through the night to continue that effort
00:13:10with all agencies involved, and i
00:13:14feel very strongly that many lives were saved because the efforts of
00:13:18so many agencies and some of which
00:13:21I haven't named. I am so honored to be part of emergency.
00:13:25management system in British Colombia where people come together in the time of
00:13:29need for those that are impacted. The Fire in Summerland last night is going
00:13:33to continue to be challenging, it's going to continue to challenge us today as we
00:13:36see the smoke start to lift as we saw yesterday. From an
00:13:40operational perspective, this fire, we are resourcing this fire
00:13:44significantly. We have incident management team that is taking command, we have
00:13:48ground crews that were there overnight all through the night and they will be there and they're
00:13:52showing up today. We're working with fire departments. we're working with contract crews
00:13:56and we were working with anybody uh that we of that we work with on all of our
00:14:00fires to support response to this incident. the fire
00:14:03ma run directly to the lake and today we are focused on trying to build
00:14:07containment lines. we're continuing to do structure protection and structure defense and
00:14:11as premer premier ebay mentioned we continue to do search and rescue
00:14:15efforts for those that are still behind the
00:14:17fireline. i am confident that this fire will be
00:14:21resourced as required, but i also want to stress that the...
00:14:25conditions we face in BC right now, in particular in the southern
00:14:28third are explosive. when we see fire start, when
00:14:32we see the smoke lift, we are going to be challenged, and we may
00:14:36see fires do what we saw on this fire last night. i cannot
00:14:39stress enough that the conditions we are facing right now are conditions that
00:14:43we have never seen before. if we recommend an evacuation
00:14:47order, i need to stress, now is the time to leave. we do
00:14:51not take those decisions lightly, we make those recommendations based on
00:14:55life based on saving lives, and so we do not take them
00:14:58lightly, and last night is an example of us having to put a
00:15:02recommended evacuation order to save lives, and thankfully all
00:15:06agencies came together to do so. again, I want to
00:15:09offer my sincere condolence everyone who has lost anything on
00:15:13this fire, and I
00:15:15we will continue through the incident management team as well as through the BC Wildfire service to
00:15:19update with relevant information, tactics that we are doing on the
00:15:22ground and resources that are being deployed. Thank you, I will now hand it
00:15:26over to Minister
00:15:27Parmar.
00:15:33Thanks very much uh, Cliff, um, good afternoon everyone, my name is Ravy Parmar.
00:15:37and I have the honor to serve as British Columbia's Minister of Force and the Minister responsible for
00:15:41the BC Wildfire Service. I want to join the Premier Cliff and all of my
00:15:45colleagues at the outside by acknowledging the extraordinary
00:15:49work the BC Wildfire service staff last night as the
00:15:53Bald Range Fire grew intensely. They carried out
00:15:57exceptionally brave work, doing everything they could to protect
00:16:01people and families an area under very
00:16:04challenging circumstances. Ariel response. teams were
00:16:08converted to emergency evacuation personnel, utilizing our aircraft
00:16:12safely relocate people trapped behind the firelines. We
00:16:16understand from staff and from Cliff that 18 of our aircraft
00:16:20were used to rescue more than 50 individuals from the
00:16:23blaze. Heading into this fire season, we've worked to build up our
00:16:27provincial capacity given the year of drought and heat we
00:16:31are experiencing. We knew this was going to be a challenging
00:16:35wildfire season and busy one. We've made investments wherever
00:16:39possible to secure equipment and infrastructure needed to improve our
00:16:42response, keep personnel safe and mitigate the potential
00:16:46impacts of wildfires. However, wildfires, as Cliff
00:16:50has noted, are natural disasters. Often as is the case with
00:16:53earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes and other events, the
00:16:57focus must be on protecting people and evacuating
00:17:01people. In this case, the Bald Range, as Cliff stated, this
00:17:05fire exhibits rank five and six characteristics, that means
00:17:09aggressive and volatile behavior combined
00:17:12with rapid growth. it is an extreme display of energy,
00:17:16heat and momentum. the sheer scale the flames
00:17:20combined with the density of smoke and ash presented real
00:17:24challenges for our crews. further more, the effects the
00:17:28pyro accumulus clouds displayed
00:17:32ensure not only are the effects the precipitation and the retarded
00:17:35negated, but it also kept burning itself, there
00:17:39is no resourcing available that we could have put on the fire
00:17:43yesterday or at this time that would prevent it from
00:17:46behaving and growing as it currently is. right
00:17:50now, as all of my colleagues have noted, the highest priorities we're
00:17:54focused on are keeping people safe, protecting structures
00:17:57and supporting emergency services, that includes the safe
00:18:01evacuation of anyone in the order of area
00:18:05that has been noted. i've been in touch. with all the relevant local leaders to
00:18:09ensure that they are accurately informed on the ground and that we have the latest
00:18:13on the ground information from them. in particular I want to thank our local
00:18:17MLA, our member of parliament and all the mayors, counselors and
00:18:20chiefs. Today I join the premier and imploring all
00:18:24British Colombians, please follow evacuation
00:18:28orders and alerts from your local governments, your regional
00:18:31district, and now the province as well. We are working
00:18:35with local leadership to ensure evacue. of a place to go and
00:18:39means of getting there, if you're an evacuation alert
00:18:42area, have your go bag ready and be aware of your
00:18:46emergency exit route, now is the time more than
00:18:50ever for every British Colombian to do their part, the BC
00:18:54wildfire service will continue to work on the fire through structure
00:18:57protection units, and as Cliff noted incoming incident management
00:19:01team. They will continue to work on protecting homes
00:19:04and structures as well
00:19:06as supporting search
00:19:07and rescue. structural fire departments and the RCMP
00:19:10as
00:19:11they attempt to access residents and recreationalists with
00:19:14no available evacuation route. we've had 70 new fires over
00:19:18the past 7 days and currently have 105 active
00:19:21wildfires in our province as of this morning. five these
00:19:25wild fires of note, including this new fire near
00:19:29Summerland. there are over 20 people with
00:19:32boots on the ground. this includes firefighting personnel,
00:19:36incident management. teams, aviation resources, heavy
00:19:40equipment resources and structure protection resources. We are throwing
00:19:44everything we can against wildfires in our province.
00:19:48Again, I cannot thank enough, I cannot have enough gratitude
00:19:52for the BC wildfire service for their ongoing work to protect people
00:19:56from this fire. This has already been an immensely hard 24 hours
00:19:59and will continue to be so. To the residents the area, we are
00:20:03doing everything possible to protect your homes and your...
00:20:07safety, but please work with us and evacuate when
00:20:11needed. our highest priority is your safety. I'll now turn it
00:20:14over to Kevin Dunbar from Emergency
00:20:16Management. Thank you,
00:20:20Minister. Good afternoon. I'm Kevin Dunbar, the executive director of
00:20:24response and recovery operations here at the Ministry of Emergency
00:20:28Management and climate readiness. Overnight, we saw a
00:20:31significant escalation and evacuations across the South Ok and
00:20:35Augen as bald range wildfire. spread, this
00:20:39is the largest evacuation event that we have seen this
00:20:42summer. now there are more than 20,00 people
00:20:45across BC that have been forced to evacuate from their
00:20:48homes. situations like these are among the most
00:20:52challenging days of people's lives and my heart goes
00:20:56out everyone who's been affected and have been evacuated and I want
00:21:00them to know that Mar ministry and the colleagues on this
00:21:04call and the province is here to support you and I want to thank the
00:21:07local government's emergency support services volunteers,
00:21:11service bc staff, search and rescue volunteers, RCMP officers,
00:21:15BC wildfire, local firefighters uh
00:21:19worked across the across jurisdictions and
00:21:23overnight under extremely challenging situations. the
00:21:26fact that that list and I very mikely missed people
00:21:30on that list shows that emergency response in BC is an
00:21:34all of society approach. we work together and
00:21:38we partner together when the going gets tough and we need to support
00:21:41people. I also want to thank residents who acted quickly
00:21:45when evacuation orders were issued and took the steps that
00:21:49they needed to. to keep themselves safe, these were really difficult
00:21:53evacuations under rapidly changing conditions,
00:21:57and the efforts of everyone involved helped saves and
00:22:01protect property. the overnight conditions at Cliff and the
00:22:05BC wildfire talked about created significant operational
00:22:08challenges. highway 97 was closed,
00:22:12evacuation roots were impacted and in some cases
00:22:15individuals needed to be rescued as they were isolated by the
00:22:19fire. We are incredibly grateful to the host
00:22:22communities across the ocean and across BC that have stepped
00:22:26up to welcome their neighbors and welcome evacuees during very,
00:22:30very difficult time. Today, our priority
00:22:34remains supporting local governments who are responding to this emergency, and
00:22:37ensuring that anyone displaced by these fires has
00:22:41access to safe place to stay and the supports that they
00:22:45need. The number of people evacuated in
00:22:49such a short.
00:23:20At the moment we are actively working to identify additional commodation
00:23:24options throughout the region. In the area we currently have
00:23:28group lodging facilities in Camwoops, Vernon, West Colona and are
00:23:32expanding to Penticton today. We're also working closely with post
00:23:35secondary institutions and federal partners to expand accommodation
00:23:39capacity rapidly. If you need
00:23:42support, you can visit the nearest reception center.
00:23:46Go online at ESS.gov.bc.ca. or you can call
00:23:50the BC helpline, which we open to 11 o'clock tonight. our
00:23:54ministry here at emergency management climate readiness, we're going to continue to work around the
00:23:58clock to support evacues and affected communities and local
00:24:02governments and first nations in the days ahead. we appreciate your
00:24:06patience as supports are put into place and that we're expanding the
00:24:10services that you need and the support that you need. thank you and
00:24:14i'll pass back now to minister
00:24:15green.
00:24:24Okay uh, thanks very much uh Cliff and Kevin uh for the update, thank you Minister
00:24:27Green, Mr. Parmer, um, with that, we'll open up to questions from the
00:24:31media. Thank you, Premier. We're going to take questions from the media now. All
00:24:35members the media called Upon, we'll have one question and one follow-up. For media on the phone line,
00:24:39please remember to press star one to enter the queue and to unmute yourself and called Upon. We're going to
00:24:43start with Paul Johnson from Global News. Thanks. Thank you. Um,
00:24:47I have two questions. First, correct me if I'm... wrong, I don't think we've
00:24:51had a provincial state of emergency since the Atmospheric River in
00:24:5421. um, can you walk us through some
00:24:58the decision making that was going on, and was there any
00:25:02specific threshhold event that you saw here in the past 24
00:25:05hours that made you realize we need to go to a province-wide state
00:25:09of emergency here? yeah, thanks, I'll I'll pass this to minister green, but
00:25:13uh first some comments from what I've seen, um,
00:25:17the uh, there was, you're correct, uh, emergency declared in 21
00:25:21with the atmospheric river but also in 23 uh with the fires
00:25:23uh and uh that was mostly around uh travel
00:25:27restrictions to the Ocanagan region enabling that authority.
00:25:31um for my part hearing the briefings from the wildfire service they are talking
00:25:35in terms that I haven't heard before uh the uh I heard
00:25:39the uh lead commander on the site was
00:25:43up all night uh briefing me this morning talk about uh
00:25:47this being like bomb going off in the summerland.
00:25:50region, the the category
00:25:54five and six fires the terminology they use, but it basically
00:25:57means that there's just the fire goes across the top the trees, he
00:26:00described, flames. uh on 100 foot
00:26:04tree flames going 200 feet above that and uh the
00:26:08fire creating its own weather system which creates
00:26:11lightning uh
00:26:12which then feeds on itself uh it growing from the
00:26:16initial area where they were throwing all their
00:26:20resources at the initial attack when it was first
00:26:23spotted uh and this is the wellfire service bringing full
00:26:27strength to the initial attack uh spreading from that initial
00:26:30site to a thousand hectare. an
00:26:33hour. um, this was
00:26:35remarkable escalation in fire
00:26:38activity, and and I just want to underline how
00:26:42quickly conditions can change on the ground, particularly for those who are facing
00:26:46evacuation orders, how important
00:26:48it is to understand that it can change from feeling very safe and
00:26:52far away to being right on your doorstep and you being trapped and having to be
00:26:56rescued. there were people who had no choice, who were um trapped by
00:27:00fast moving conditions and had to be rescued. helicopter uh
00:27:04and
00:27:04uh and that's where the resources need to be focused. um, if you can get out, please do when you
00:27:08face one these orders. i'll ask minister green to come up and talk about her decision to uh to issue
00:27:12this
00:27:12order.
00:27:17uh, thank you very much. um, we rely on expert
00:27:21advice from both emergency management personnel in my ministry as well as
00:27:25BC wildfire service. um, the conditions are
00:27:28clearly extremely volatile, um, we are expecting...
00:27:32additional um uh declining uh weather
00:27:36conditions that that will impact um likely
00:27:39impact um having additional fires um
00:27:43we know that um where we're at right now um we need to have this
00:27:47provincial state of emergency so that additional powers uh
00:27:51like restricting that local travel um getting
00:27:55additional accommodations online all of those
00:27:58powers
00:27:59um stem from the provincial state of emergency and we need to have the matter fingertips.
00:28:02because the conditions are changing so quickly. um, I would
00:28:06turn it over to Kevin Dunbar for additional operational
00:28:10awareness, but basically the conditions are such
00:28:14that we need to have these a moment's notice, and that's what we've
00:28:18done today. Kevin. Thanks very
00:28:21much, minister. As part of our planning and part of our operational
00:28:25work, the state of we have been looking at the powers around the state of a
00:28:29preferential emergency to ensure that we're positioned to support.
00:28:32communities as conditions continue deteriorate and to support them
00:28:36as they are today, we're seeing accommodation and the
00:28:40quick and rapid movement of people as two of our biggest
00:28:44operational pressures today. there are measures under state
00:28:48of provincial emergency as minister mentioned such as targeted
00:28:52non-essential travel restrictions that might be considered as
00:28:55required to both ensure ease of access for
00:28:59first responders to smooth evacuations. and to ensure that
00:29:03we're able to preserve accommodation and critical access uh
00:29:07in into these sort of areas. a state of provincial
00:29:10emergency gives us the flexibility implement these
00:29:13measures quickly if operationally required
00:29:17and we will constantly do that in coordination with local governments, first nations
00:29:21and our partners like the BC wildfire service to ensure
00:29:25that the powers that would be used under a state
00:29:26of provincial emergency are supporting our emergency response
00:29:30operations and supporting us in our efforts. to keep the people in BC
00:29:34safe and ultimately get them home as quickly and as safely as
00:29:37possible. Thank you. Thanks Kevin and Cliff Chapman for the Welfire Service. I understand you might
00:29:41have something that. Yeah, thanks you.
00:29:45I just thought I'd provide a quick wildfire perspective uh from a BC Waldfire service
00:29:49perspective. Our major concern even heading into this weekend wasn't the fires
00:29:53that were already on the land base. It was the fires that could potentially hit the
00:29:57land base and last night obviously we saw the most extreme version of
00:30:01that. And so... from aBC wildfire service in terms
00:30:05the provincial declaration, this is supporting the the potential of having
00:30:09another fire like this in BC is very real. we
00:30:13are fortunate that we aren't seeing lightning right now, we may see in the next couple of
00:30:17days and ideally it's going to stay further north of where our most
00:30:20our significant hazard is, but at this point in time you really
00:30:24is the tipping point in terms of where we are as an organization surging to
00:30:28to fight these fires and and being able to kind of control a little bit more. as
00:30:32Kevin talked about the travel corridors and accommodations as we continue to
00:30:36have significant resources now heading to this summerland fire and the
00:30:40potential of new fire that could could hit somewhere in the southern caribu,
00:30:44the campus fire center, the southeast fire center or the eastern portions the coastal
00:30:48fire center, which is a significant portion the province that is in
00:30:52extreme fire danger, extreme fire hazard at the
00:30:54moment. one follow up
00:30:58question, we're hearing from some of our reporters who up covering the...