Christy Clark announces $100M to help communities affected by B.C. wildfires

KAMLOOPS, B.C. – British Columbia is making $100 million available to communities and residents affected by wildfires to help them rebuild.

Outgoing Premier Christy Clark announced the fund today during a visit to Kamloops, where she met with emergency officials and families impacted by scores of out-of-control fires.

Clark says $600 will be made immediately available by electronic transfer through the Red Cross to people who have registered after being forced from their homes.

She says the transition team for premier-designate John Horgan’s incoming government has been briefed on the establishment of the fund.

Horgan was to meet with evacuees in Kamloops and visit emergency operations centres that are dealing with what his team called the “worsening wildfire crisis.”

Ground and air crews were battling 230 wildfires across B.C. amid continuing hot, dry and often windy conditions that made it a difficult struggle.