has been declared, 50,000 homes are under evacuation orders. cnn s paula newton has this wrap-up of the situation in canada. it will be a critical weekend to come here in canada where wildfires threaten two very large communities and we begin in northwest toerritories. its capital city, yellowknife, under a strict evacuation order, more than 20,000 people were given less than 48 hours to get out, the most vulnerable, of course, were of concern, even those in hospitals in long-term care homes had to be evacuated. when we had an update from federal officials they did indicate the evacuation was going well. that the military was also helping out with an air lift while most of the people were able to leave by road the fire threatening that community was at this point so critical at such a dire stage that they decided this entire city had to be evacuated. they expect very few people to remain there this weekend as they continue to battle that fire.
wildfire where they just could not predict where it was going next, largely because of the wind. what does that entail? as you can imagine, the most vulnerable right now. there is an unprecedented air lift that involves commercial airplanes but also the military. i want you to listen now to canada s minister of defense as he was just telling us how they are getting the most vulnerable out of the city. listen. they have fit-for-purpose aircraft that are able to move people who may be nonambulatory on stretcher or wheelchair. they can also provide medical personnel to provide support and assistance to those who may need it. reporter: now, those who obviously need medical evacuation are going out on other kinds of aircraft. i also want to point out that in british columbia at this hour in kelowna, they have another fire that is out of control, thousands there warned to get out now. others on alert. again, this is all part of an
failure of leadership and private citizens who stepped up. this story is one of the most amazing about americans stepping up. two 29 year-old women. one with a seven year old and they put together this air lift. watch. will: august 8s, fire shuts down west maui from the world cell service and physical access, roads into this entire side of the island incapable of getting access from supplies. you can come through the air. these two young ladies put together the biggest, i can imagine, private relief effort on west maui. planes run in and out of capital airport all day long. they are telling families one water per family, how can we fix this? crazy to see what happened. we started with one airplane and