Fires are gaining ground in western Canada where thousands continue to evacuate

August 20, 2023

The fires ravaging Canada further gained ground on Sunday in the west of the country where two large fires merged as thousands of panicked residents continued their evacuation.

The blaze resulting from this merger, located in the Shuswap region 500 km northeast of Vancouver, now covers more than 41,000 hectares, according to British Columbia firefighters.

“Fire soldiers are working to stop the progression of flames towards structures in areas where they continue to actively advance through woods and meadows,” they said on X (ex-Twitter) on Sunday.

The north winds favored the spread of these fires which destroyed several buildings in this tourist region.

The city of Kelowna, about 150,000 people, 150 km south of Shuswap, where thousands of people had to evacuate, is still enveloped in thick, fragrant smoke visible for more than 100 km around the city on Sunday. observed an AFP journalist.

“It’s been horrible spending the week with this air, it’s horrible to breathe,” Mary Hicks, 29, who came from Montreal to visit a friend in Glenmore, told AFP on Saturday evening. Kelowna.

His return flight was canceled and the Kelowna airport closed to aid the aircraft’s firefighting efforts.

April, 39, who declined to give her last name, had to evacuate her home with her two small children and is staying at the hotel she works for as a receptionist in East Kelowna, outside the area under evacuation orders.

“When I had to pack, I cried, cried, cried. I thought of my family, especially the children,” she explained.

This mother took with her documents, jewelry and clothes.

“It’s the first time something like this has happened to me. It was really sad to leave, to leave our house, I don’t know what will happen but I think our hotel is safe” , she confided.

On the other side of Lake Okanagan, in West Kelowna, a significant number of homes have burned, according to the authorities, who are however optimistic about the fight against the fires, for the first time since Thursday.

“We’re at four days, it feels like months, but things are looking up,” West Kelowna Fire Chief Jason Brolund said Sunday.

“We finally feel like we are moving forward rather than backward,” he said.

On the spot, Shani and Matt Ekman abandoned their house, threatened by the flames. They have settled in with relatives, but they wonder if they will have to go even further, seeing the fires getting closer. “We are ready to flee,” 37-year-old Matt Elman told AFP.

Across British Columbia, under a state of emergency, about 30,000 people have been ordered to evacuate and another 36,000 are on high alert and ready to flee, local authorities said.

“Do not travel to areas of the province affected by the fires for sightseeing or for fun,” Bowinn Ma, the provincial emergency manager, said Sunday.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau indicated for his part the deployment of “Canadian Armed Forces equipment and resources to support evacuations” as well as the approval of the request for federal assistance from British Columbia, in a publication on X.

The fires also affect northern Canada, including the capital of the Northwest Territories, Yellowknife, where nearly all of the 20,000 inhabitants had to evacuate.

After some respite on Saturday, thanks to the rains of the previous night which caused a sharp drop in temperatures, they were expected to rise again on Sunday according to the authorities.

“Although the fire is not visible on the surface, it is active and huge,” said Northwest Territories Environment Minister Shane Thompson.

“It’s a summer like no other, we’re seeing it across the country, whether it’s in Nova Scotia, across western Canada, we’ve had extreme weather events that have a huge impact in the country,” said Justin Trudeau during a press conference in support of Canadians on Sunday.

Canada has been confronted in recent years with extreme weather events, the intensity and frequency of which have been increased by climate change.

The country is experiencing a record-breaking forest fire season this year: 14 million hectares – about the size of Greece – have burned, double the last record dating from 1989.