British Columbia wildfires force 14,000 to evacuate their homes
By
Janet Browning and Roger Jordan
14 July 2017
More than 14,000 people in the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) have been forced from their homes as hundreds of wildfires rage in the province’s central and southern interior. Provincial authorities declared a state of emergency last Friday and military units have been placed on stand-by to intervene.
The fires have been fueled by several weeks of hot and dry weather. As of Thursday evening, the province reported 183 wildfires were burning, down from 220 earlier in the week. BC Wildfire Services has 1,000 firefighters tackling the wildfires, along with private contractors and several hundred firefighters from other provinces.
Darren Campbell, head of the emergency response centre for the Cariboo Regional District, said that strong winds forecast for the weekend could lead to the threatened areas expanding significantly, especially in Chilcotin and north Cariboo. “We might be dealing with some new situations in some new areas,” he said Thursday.
Bob Turner of Emergency Management BC said that plans are being developed for mass evacuations, most likely from Williams Lake, with a population of over 10,000.
Those who were forced from their homes were given virtually no warning of the approaching blaze and some fear they have lost everything. “We’re going back to nothing,” one resident staying at an emergency centre in Kamloops told CBC. “All the trailers and everything are just laying flat. We probably won’t even be able to save a picture.”
Many people went to Kamloops in the south to escape the fire, but the city has become overwhelmed, so evacuees are now being told to drive to Prince George, several hours to the north. Most have…