State of emergency declared as devastation in British Columbia province and Northwest Territories is the latest in wildfires across the country.
Firefighters battled raging wildfires that encroached on two metropolitan areas in western Canada – blazes that have sent tens of thousands fleeing over the course of just days.
An out-of-control fire in southern BC grew more than one hundredfold in 24 hours.
As conditions continued to deteriorate quickly through Friday evening, British Colombia (BC) Premier Daniel Eby declared a province-wide state of emergency to access temporary authoritative powers to tackle fire-related risks.
“This is an historic wildfire season for British Columbia,” Eby told a media briefing. “The state of emergency declaration … communicates to people across the province the seriousness of the deteriorating situation.”
Blazes also burned near Lytton in the Fraser Canyon – razed by a wildfire in 2021 – and Invermere in southeast BC.
The devastating fires in BC and the Northwest Territories are just the latest in a summer of dramatic wildfires across the country.
Yellowknife, capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories, was transformed into a virtual ghost town after nearly all residents of the city of 20,000 fled.
The evacuations took place over 48 hours, Environment Minister Shane Thompson said, with about 15,000 driving out in convoys and 3,800 leaving on emergency flights.
There are fears the only escape route could be cut off as about 2,600 people remained behind, including emergency teams, firefighters, utility workers and police officers, along with residents who refused to leave.
More than 2,000km (1,200 miles) south in BC, fire also bore down on Kelowna, a city of 150,000 people in the Okanagan Valley.
