Canada wildfires: British Columbia declares state of emergency as thousands forced to flee

Premier David Eby warned that “the situation has evolved rapidly and we are in for an extremely challenging situation in the days ahead” as thousands more people were told to leave their homes in British Columbia
Brutal wildfires have seen another Canadian province almost deserted as a state of emergency has been declared in British Columbia.

Premier David Eby warned that “the situation has evolved rapidly and we are in for an extremely challenging situation in the days ahead” as thousands more people were told to leave their homes while firefighters battled a growing fire that set homes ablaze. The McDougall Creek wildfire has grown from 64 to 6,800 hectares in 24 hours and around 4,800 people are now under evacuation orders. Evacuations were also being carried out in nearby Kelowna, a city with a population of about 150,000 that lies across Okanagan Lake.

Officials in Northwest Territories said yesterday evening that about 19,000 people had left Yellowknife in less than 48 hours, with about 15,000 driving out in convoys and 3,800 leaving on emergency flights. Shane Thompson, the territory’s minister of environment and climate change, said the wildfire situation remained critical and the non-emergency personnel who stayed were endangering themselves and others. “Please get out now”, he said.

Streets were nearly empty and stores were closed down. One local told the Associated Press: “It’s a ghost town.” One supermarket and a pharmacy remained open on Friday but were expected to close. The last petrol station still operating eventually shut down in the afternoon. One bar was still open, where many exhausted workers were at the end of long shifts. “It’s kind of like having a pint at the end of the world”, Kieron Testart said.

Eleven air tankers bombed water onto the flames and another plane dropped fire retardant. A 6-mile fire line was dug, and firefighters deployed 12 miles of hose and a plethora of pumps in the fight to keep the fire at bay. The fire, caused by lightning more than a month ago, is about 644 square miles and “not going away anytime soon”, fire information officer Mike Westwick said.

Canada is enduring its worst wildfire season, with more than 1,000 active fires burning across the country, including 236 in the Northwest Territories. Fires in the territory have burned more than 2m hectares of land, and more than half of the region’s population is under evacuation orders. Yellowknife mayor Rebecca Alty said on Friday it was unclear when residents would be able to return. She said: “Unfortunately, the journey isn’t done yet. The fire continues to approach and the uncertainty of when you’ll be able to return will be difficult.”

No casualties had been reported, but some first responders became trapped while rescuing people who failed to evacuate, said Jason Brolund, chief of the West Kelowna fire department. A woman whose family evacuated the town of Hay River on Sunday told CBC that their vehicle began to melt as they drove through embers, the front window cracked and the vehicle filled with smoke that made it difficult to see the road ahead. She said her son kept saying: “I don’t want to die, Mommy.”