3,600 evacuated in central B.C.

A fast-moving wildfire has forced as many as 3,600 people to leave their homes in central British Columbia as another community was added to an evacuation order Friday.

Al Richmond, chairman of the Cariboo Regional District, said people have been ordered to leave their homes about 200 kilometres northwest of Kamloops.

The evacuation order applied to about 2,100 properties around 105 Mile House, 108 Mile House and the west shore of Lac La Hache, while about 600 properties were under evacuation alert, he said.

No properties were at risk of burning by Friday afternoon, but officials issued the order to leave because of concerns about changing wind patterns and heavy smoke cutting off access roads and evacuation routes, Richmond said.

“When the winds shift, as they are predicted to do, the threat becomes greater, smoke would move into communities, making it difficult to get people out,” he said, describing the 12-square-kilometre blaze as volatile. “Moving now will eliminate that element of panic.”