Fires in Canada: images showing the progress of the fire in the province of British Columbia where a state of emergency was declared
The McDougall Creek wildfire burns in the foothills of West Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.
Photo: DARREN HULL/AFP/Getty Images
Authorities in Canada’s western British Columbia province have ordered the evacuation of around 15,000 homes where firefighters are battling wildfires in the area.
A “significant” number of buildings were reported to have caught fire in West Kelowna, a city of 36,000, and more than 2,400 homes were evacuated.
A state of emergency was declared for the entire province, where hundreds of separate fires are burning.
Canada is experiencing an unprecedented wildfire season, with official estimates of more than 13.7 million hectares already burned.
Authorities issued evacuation orders for areas near the city of Kelowna, home to about 150,000 residents.Canada is having its worst wildfire season on record, with at least 1,000 fires across the country, according to the Canadian Interagency Wildfire Center (CIFFC).A Kelowna resident told the BBC the fires spread up the mountainside like an “ominous cloud of destruction”.West Kelowna Fire Chief Jason Brolund described the wildfire as “devastating.” “We fought hard last night to protect our community. We fought 100-year-old fires in a single night,” he added.Local officials reported “significant structural losses” in the area, including in Trader’s Cove, just north of West Kelowna.A Kelowna resident told the BBC that locals had seen a plume of smoke billowing up the mountainside like an “ominous cloud of destruction.”Kelowna residents are used to fires due to the “California-style weather” in the area, but the heat, dryness and wind of the past few days created the perfect conditions for a “fire storm.”People line up outside a school in the Northwest Territories town of Yellowknife to register to evacuate as wildfires threaten the town.A long line of cars rushing to evacuate Yellowknife.
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