Hundreds of Wildfires Burn Across Canada Sending Smoke Into the US — Transcript

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1. 0:00Well, as you can see, it is pretty
2. 0:02intensely raining here in Thunder Bay,
3. 0:04bringing some reprieve here to
4. 0:06Northwestern Ontario as they continue to
5. 0:09deal with a number of wildfires, many of
6. 0:11which continue to burn out of control.
7. 0:14With this storm, however, comes the risk
8. 0:16of lightning in an area that is still
9. 0:18tinder dry after extreme heat conditions
10. 0:21over the last several weeks. Thousands
11. 0:23of people here in the north have been
12. 0:25evacuated from their homes and we're
13. 0:27hearing harrowing tales of people
14. 0:30fleeing with really the clothes that
15. 0:31were on their backs. Many of the
16. 0:33communities that have had to be
17. 0:34evacuated, they are not accessible by
18. 0:37road, so they have had to leave by air
19. 0:39or in some cases by boats. The community
20. 0:42of Collins First Nation people there
21. 0:44saying that they were going door-to-door
22. 0:45trying to make sure no one was left
23. 0:47behind, cramming whatever they could, as
24. 0:49many people as they could, into boats as
25. 0:51they fled across the lake. We've heard
26. 0:54from officials both in the province and
27. 0:56the federal government saying that they
28. 0:58are going to be putting whatever
29. 1:00resources are necessary to helping fight
30. 1:02these wildfires, but also help the
31. 1:04people who have been impacted.
32. 1:07Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario, has
33. 1:09been under some scrutiny with some
34. 1:10saying that there was not enough money
35. 1:12in the budget to fight these wildfires.
36. 1:15He said yesterday that Ontario will
37. 1:17spend as much money and do whatever is
38. 1:19needed to help fight the fires and help
39. 1:22the people with the federal government
40. 1:23also saying that they stand at the ready
41. 1:25to help in any way necessary. We also
42. 1:27know a request has been made by the
43. 1:29province of Ontario to the federal
44. 1:31government to ensure that planes can be
45. 1:33ready with less than 24 hours notice
46. 1:36should more evacuations be needed
47. 1:38because as I mentioned, many of these
48. 1:39communities not accessible by road. And
49. 1:42so while it is raining here, there is
50. 1:44still a lot of uncertainty in the days
51. 1:46ahead in terms of how these fires are
52. 1:48going to unfold, how many more
53. 1:50communities might be impacted, but for
54. 1:52now this rain, of course, a welcome
55. 1:54development as wildfires continue to
56. 1:56rage here in Northwestern Ontario.
57. 1:59Heather Wright, CTV News, Thunder Bay,
58. 2:01Ontario.