Mr. Speaker, lightening started more than 50 forest fires around my riding of Okanagan—Shuswap.
One month ago a fire like one of these got whipped up by 90 kilometre winds into an inferno. It moved so fast that many escaped with nothing but their lives and the clothes on their backs.
The Salmon Arm fire caused the biggest evacuation in the history of British Columbia, with more than 7,000 people moved on a 10 minute alert.
Today I want to say thank you to all the people from communities near and far who took in the evacuees, who donated or volunteered, who worked above and beyond the call of duty.
I also want to issue a solemn warning. Although 200 troops from Edmonton came to B.C. to help, they had to travel and then get up to two days of training before they could staff the fire lines. It is totally irresponsible for this government to abandon British Columbia with no land forces base since it closed Chilliwack.