Canada seeks foreign aid in fight against spreading wildfires

(Patria) - Canada has called for foreign assistance in the fight against wildfires that have gotten out of control and are spreading across vast parts of the western half of the country, AFP reported.

The fires that have devastated the oil-producing province of Alberta have spread in recent days to neighboring British Columbia and Saskatchewan, as well as to the Northwest Territories. Around 2,500 firefighters from across Canada, supported by 400 military personnel, have been deployed across Alberta to try to tame the wildfires, which have already destroyed more than half a million hectares of forests and grasslands, as well as many homes and businesses.

"This is still a very significant and dangerous situation in Alberta," said federal Public Safety Minister Bill Blair in Ottawa. Blair said that Canada's Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre is "reaching out to foreign countries - the United States, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand... We are asking them to come and help us."

Nearly 180 wildfires were burning across the region, including 48 out of control, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee in the past two weeks.