Extent of B.C. fire damage unclear

KAMLOOPS, B.C. • Fastmoving wildfires in British Columbia are posing serious challenges for crews fighting to keep the flames from more than a dozen communities, officials said Sunday.

As many as 37,000 residents have been forced to leave their homes and are flooding into crowded evacuation centres amid a provincial state of emergency that Transportation Minister Todd Stone said could last “many weeks.”

More evacuation orders were issued Saturday night as winds picked up in the Interior, jumping highways and threatening to cut off escape routes.

Thousands of residents who were told to leave the central Interior city of Williams Lake headed south to Kamloops, which has already become a temporary home for thousands displaced by wildfires this year.

Stone said resources in Kamloops are “approaching the point of being a bit stretched,” but no evacuee will be turned away.

“Officials in Kamloops are scrambling to pull together any and all resources we can to meet the needs of all evacuees who show up here,” he said.

“We are going to get through this. We are resilient.”

British Columbia last declared a state of emergency because of wildfires in 2003, when more than 50,000 people were evacuated from Kelowna and the surrounding area.

Robert Turner with Emergency Management BC said this year’s fire season is unique because there are so many fires spread across the province and it’s still early in the season.

Kevin Skrepnek, B.C.’s chief fire information officer, said there were more than 160 wildfires burning on Sunday, including 15 that pose a very real threat to nearby communities.

“We were seeing violent behaviour out there on many incidents. In some cases we did have to withdraw our own personnel from the fire line to ensure their safety,” he said.

Hot, windy weather has also caused a fire that started burning near Ashcroft to balloon and fire officials estimate it has now burned through 423 square kilometres. Fire information officer Ellie Dupont said that blaze has gone through a few towns, but she could not say how many buildings were destroyed.

Several homes were confirmed lost when a fast-moving fire raced through brush and forest above Okanagan Lake in the community of Lake Country late Saturday.

Officials in Lake Country said residents hoping to get back to their homes on Sunday were being turned away. Lake Country fire chief Steve Windsor said residents are understandably worried about the possible loss of their homes.

“We’re not releasing the numbers yet,” he said. “But at this point we’re saying ‘numerous,’ and it is quite numerous.”

Forests Minister John Rustad said on Sunday that 2,900 people are battling blazes across B.C., including 415 from out of province and 203 aircraft.