Mr. Speaker, on Sunday, 14 fire departments rallied together to contain 2 raging wild fires near Lethbridge that were fuelled by hurricane-force winds.
The firefighters were assisted by the police, disaster services, several Hutterite colonies and other community volunteers.
Providence must also be acknowledged. The fires raged for over 12 hours, spread as wide as 9 kilometres, over 40 kilometres long. One fire came to the edge of the city, but not a single home or building was burned.
As I toured the south fire with local authorities, we saw that it was nothing short of miraculous the number of times the fire suddenly shifted direction before it would have consumed a home or a building, a group of animals or a community.
Finally, many local emergency preparedness plans were executed, and others were ready to be put into action. In addition to praising first responders, I call on individuals, families, communities and their leaders across the country to put an emergency preparedness plan in place.