B.C. in state of emergency with thousands out of their homes due to wildfires
CBC
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B.C.'s fight against wildfires continues Saturday, after blazes flared up on Friday night and destroyed properties in in the Central Okanagan region.
The province is under a state of emergency due to hundreds of wildfires, with the emergency management minister saying 15,000 people had been told to leave their homes, and a further 20,000 had been told to get ready to leave at a moment's notice.
The McDougall Creek wildfire burning in West Kelowna grew more than a hundredfold — from 64 hectares to 6,800 hectares (68 square kilometres) — in just 24 hours. As of late Friday evening, it covered an area of 105 square kilometres, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service.
More than 2,400 properties are under an evacuation order, and more than 4,800 properties are under an evacuation alert due to the blaze.
While properties were confirmed destroyed in the blaze, the exact number will not be known until officials can assess the situation, according to a Friday update.
Kelowna has a population of approximately 150,000 residents, while West Kelowna has about 36,000.
The airspace above the southern Interior city remains closed due to the blaze. The nearby University of B.C. Okanagan campus was also evacuated on Friday.
Mary Ann Murphy, a sociologist at UBC Okanagan, described the situation in the Kelowna region as "spooky."
"I have a really good air purifier in my home, but my home reeks of smoke," she told Lisa Christiansen, host of CBC's North by Northwest, on Saturday morning.
Murphy said she could not believe the devastating blaze was affecting her community, so soon after a deadly wildfire in Hawaii and a series of fires that led to the evacuation of Yellowknife — and almost 20 years to the day since a devastating blaze ignited south of Kelowna and destroyed almost 240 homes.
"I never imagined, honestly didn't imagine that this could happen again in Kelowna this week, on the 20th anniversary of the Okanagan Mountain Park fire," she said. "It feels eerily similar. I have to say, I really was in a state of disbelief."
Under the province's state of emergency, B.C. officials can issue emergency orders, including travel restrictions and the ability to free up accommodations for evacuees, emergency personnel and health-care workers.
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