Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered help to British Columbia residents plagued by wildfires on Tuesday.
Almost 5,000 B.C. residents have been evacuated as the fires continue to burn throughout the province’s Interior.
Harper, who was in B.C. Tuesday to tour a new bridge project with Premier Gordon Campbell, called the fire situation "worrisome" and said he expects the province will have to apply for disaster relief.
"Of course we are always willing to provide whatever resources we can provide," Harper told reporters during a scrum on the Vancouver-area bridge.
"There is, as you know, a Disaster Relief Act that is in place at the federal level and when damages reach a certain point they are triggered automatically and there is a process for application for those damages and do we expect it to be triggered in this case? I would think so."
Campbell said the province has been working in partnership with the federal government to deal with the disaster.
"We don’t even ask for disaster financial assistance until we have the disaster behind us. We think it’s very important for us to deal with the people, the personnel and the property first," said Campbell.
Meanwhile, firefighters in southeastern B.C. continued their effort Tuesday to contain a 1,200 hectare blaze in the Kootenays, about 50 kilometres southeast of Revelstoke.
"We have one fire of note, which is the Galena Bay fire, about 30 kilometres north of Nakusp . . . which started last Monday," fire information spokeswoman Gwen Eamer said Tuesday. "It is still growing. At this point we don’t have containment. We are working to build fire guards along the west and south flanks which are the flanks that are the closest to communities and the highways."
Eamer said an evacuation alert remained in place for residents living along Highway 23 in the Halcyon Hot Springs area.
In the northwestern B.C. community of Bella Coola, residents were breathing a sigh of relief Tuesday after enduring another long night in the shadow of an aggressive wildfire.
"There has been no structural damage," emergency program co-ordinator Stephen Waugh said.
Approximately 65 households were evacuated Monday after the fire flared up. Waugh said the community is holding steady and the evacuation order will not be extended at this time.
Fire information officer Sue Handel said there are two fires burning near Bella Coola that are relatively close together. One fire is estimated at 150 hectares, the other 200 hectares.
"Both are burning on steep terrain, which makes access by crews very difficult so the majority of the effort is being done from the air. We have three helicopters working on those fires today and a fourth is on its way," Handel said.
Waugh said contingency plans were in place to move people away from Bella Coola.
"We would have to go to the west and we would have to get off through marine transportation or through aircraft transportation," Waugh said.
A nursing station and a reception area have been opened in the community. Three homes were threatened overnight Sunday but he said a strong community effort helped save the residences.
"We had a situation where some homes were directly affected and fire crews worked on those in conjunction with our local volunteer firefighters. They worked all night to protect those houses. The residents of those three houses didn’t need an official order since they were helping with the efforts," Waugh said.
About 2,238 fires have burned 70,547 hectares throughout B.C. since April 1. As of Tuesday, there were about 807 fires burning in the province.
"It’s a fairly extreme situation," Eamer said.
Meanwhile, provincial government officials announced Tuesday that 30 firefighters from Australia and New Zealand were on their way to B.C.
"The large number of fires is stretching our resources," said Forestry Minister Pat Bell in a news release. "We are grateful for the assistance from these Australian and New Zealand professionals."
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