Thousands of British Columbia (B.C.) residents were on high evacuation alert on Saturday after rapidly intensifying wildfires forced the Canadian province to declare a state of emergency, while some sections of a key transit route between the Pacific coast and the rest of western Canada were partially closed.
The western province of B.C. has experienced strong winds and dry lightning in the past 36 hours due to a cold mass of air interacting with hot air built-up in the sultry summer. That intensified existing forest fires and ignited new ones.
The fires moved so rapidly on Friday that the number of people under evacuation order went from 4,500 to 15,000 in an hour, while another 20,000 were under evacuation alert. The province currently accounts for over a third of Canada’s 1,062 active fires. “The state of emergency declaration … communicates to people across the province the seriousness of the deteriorating situation,” Eby said.
TransCanada is the main east-west artery used by thousands of motorists and road freight heading to Port of Vancouver, the country’s busiest. Some 5,000 customers are also without electricity in interior B.C. due to the fires, the main utility said. Forest fires are not uncommon in Canada, but the spread of blazes and disruption underscore the severity of its worst wildfire season yet.
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