Sarnia's mayor is witnessing the fire crisis in Alberta firsthand. Mike Bradley is in Edmonton where he was scheduled to be a keynote speaker at the city's annual Gateway Association conference Wednesday. He says Edmonton is preparing to accommodate people fleeing south from fire-ravaged Fort McMurray.
"They're estimating over 20,000 people will be coming to Edmonton today and tomorrow, so people are trying to do their best to assist," says Bradley. "It would be like asking everyone in Sarnia to move to London overnight so there are reception centres being set up, there are all sorts of things happening like firefighters being sent to Fort McMurray."
Ray Curran of the Sarnia Construction Association estimates there's only a handful of local tradespeople in Fort McMurray right now because of the downturn in the oil industry.
Sarnia City Councillor Anne-Marie Gillis told her county colleagues in Wyoming Wednesday morning that Sarnia-Lambton has many ties to the Fort McMurray area through industry and the Communities in Bloom competition. Gillis says a letter will be sent asking if there's anything Lambton can do to help.
"Particularly when we have such a close affinity with Fort McMurray, having sat down and broken bread with councillors and members of the community of Fort McMurray and Wood Buffalo, I just felt it was important for us to let them know that we're here for them," says Gillis. "We know that if the situations were reversed they would do it for us."
The Communities in Bloom organization has rallied in the past to support communities in crisis including Goderich when its historic downtown and surrounding area was devastated by a tornado in 2011.
-With files from Lee Michaels and Dave Dentinger.
