'Difficult Days Ahead': Wildfires In Canada's British Columbia Intensify, Evacuation Doubled

Authorities have warned that even more difficult days lie ahead as the wildfires in Canada's British Columbia intensified.

Representative Image: Forest fire in British Columbia intensified further on Friday

Source : Getty

Authories doubled evacuation of people to 35,000 as the forest fires in Canada's western province of British Columbia intensified further on Saturday. A state of emergency was declared in the province on Friday, to access temporary authoritative powers to tackle the risks as the wildfire raged. The intense fires damaged properties and led to the partial shutdown of some sections of a key transit route between the Pacific coast and the rest of western Canada, reported news agency Reuters. Authorities have warned of difficult days ahead.

British Columbia Premier David Eby while talking to the media on Saturday said the current situation was grim. He said that around 35,000 people were under an evacuation order and apart from that, 30,000 more were under evacuation alert. He added that the province was in dire need of shelter for the evacuees and firefighters. He ordered a ban on non-essential travel to make more temporary accommodation available. 

If you don’t need to travel to any wildfire affected area - please don’t.

With thousands of people evacuated in the Okanagan, this travel order will help make sure we have accommodation for evacuees and emergency personnel who need it. https://t.co/5LsImh76Iu

— David Eby (@Dave_Eby) August 19, 2023

British Columbia experienced strong winds and dry lightning in the past few days due to a cold mass of air interacting with hot air built-up in the hot summer. The aforementioned further intensified the existing forest fires and even ignited some new ones.

Deputy fire centre manager at the Kamloops Fire Centre, Jerrad Schroeder while talking to the media said, "We are still in some critically dry conditions, and are still expecting difficult days ahead," reported Reuters.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau convened a meeting of key ministers and senior officials on Saturday to discuss wildfires. The 'Incident Response Group', which met twice this week, agreed to make "additional resources available" to both British Columbia as well as the Northwest Territories.

By Friday, an uncontrollable fire in southern British Columbia grew a hundredfold in the period of 24 hours and it forced more than 2,400 properties to be evacuated, Reuters reported. The fire was centred around the city of Kelowna which is around 300 kilometres east of Vancouver and has a population of about 150,000 people. The fires moved so rapidly that the number of people under evacuation orders grew from 4,500 to 15,000 in an hour. Another 20,000 people were under evacuation alert. The province currently accounts for over one-third of Canada's 1,062 active fires, reported Reuters.