Manitoba premier declares state of emergency over wildfires, says military aid coming [Video]

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew ordered a provincewide state of emergency Wednesday as his province struggles with a series of crippling wildfires, mainly in the remote north.

Kinew says he has spoken to Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has agreed to send in the military.

The premier said the fires have forced 17,000 people across several communities to flee in what he calls the largest such exodus in living memory in Manitoba.

“Pray for Flin Flon, pray for Pimicikamak, pray for Mathias Colomb, pray for Cross Lake, pray for everybody in Manitoba who’s out of their homes right now,” he told a late afternoon news conference.

The evacuations include all 5,000 residents of the city of Flin Flon.

Kinew said when cottage owners and other nearby residents are added in, …