ShareKELOWNA: Two huge and fast-moving wildfires merged overnight in western Canada, threatening hundreds of homes and forcing continued evacuations in British Columbia province, officials said. With flames now threatening the 3,500 homes near Shuswap, 150 kilometers (93 miles) north of the larger city of Kelowna, a total of tens of thousands of residents have now been ordered or urged to leave. With northern winds continuing to fan the flames, two huge fires in the region merged overnight, destroying several structures in a region popular with tourists.
Across the province, with a state of emergency still in force, some 30,000 people have been ordered to evacuate while 36,000 others have been told to prepare to leave if necessary. Bowinn Ma, the British Columbia minister of emergency management, emphasized the seriousness of evacuation orders. “It is a matter of life and death,” she said, not only for the residents affected but for emergency personnel who have to go into danger zones to persuade reluctant residents to leave. Canada’s Northwest Territories, north of British Columbia, are also facing a grave fire threat.
The territorial capital, Yellowknife, has been surrounded by wildfires for days. Nearly all the city’s 20,000 people have left. The region saw some respite after overnight rains Saturday brought a sharp drop in temperatures, but the fire threat was expected to grow again on Sunday, the authorities said. Shane Thompson, environment minister for the Northwest Territories, emphasized Saturday that even when flames might not be visible, the fire “is active and enormous.” Canada is experiencing a record-setting wildfire season, with official estimates of more than 14 million hectares (34.6 million acres) already burned—roughly the size of Greece. Four people have died so far. Scientists say human-caused global warming is making natural hazards both more frequent and more deadly.
KELOWNA: Evacuees Shay Nicole and Paryss Nicole stay with their family and pets at the Jim Lind Arena while the McDougall Creek wildfires continue in West Kelowna, British Columbia on August 19, 2023. – AFP photos66% of population displaced
Officials in western Canada’s British Columbia implored tens of thousands of residents to heed evacuation orders Saturday as wildfires threatened large parts of the scenic Okanagan Valley, including the city of Kelowna. Blazes in the neighboring Northwest Territories have meanwhile prompted the evacuation of regional capital Yellowknife, leaving the remote city of around 20,000 largely a ghost town. Overnight rains brought some relief to Yellowknife on Saturday, however, “a little rain does not mean it’s safe to come back home,” warned Northwest Territories environment minister Shane Thompson.
“Though the surface may not show fire, it’s still active and it’s huge,” he said at a Saturday evening news conference, noting that temperatures are expected to rise again Sunday. Yellowknife official Chris Greencorn praised the work crews were doing to build defenses around the city, with large areas cleared to create firebreaks and pipes laid for sprinklers and water cannon.
“Basically this represents approximately two full Yellowknife construction seasons completed in less than six days,” he said. The exodus from Yellowknife and elsewhere means two-thirds of the near-Arctic territory’s population has been displaced, Thompson said. The fires have caused “terrible loss,” Trudeau told reporters after meeting Yellowknife evacuees Friday as they arrived in Edmonton, Alberta, with no idea when they may return home.
‘I was tearing up’
Crystal Sangris barely slept for three days as wildfires threatened her hometown in northern Canada, and when she was ordered to evacuate, her anxiety turned to anguish. “I never, never thought that this day would come,” she told AFP on Friday at Calgary airport, after she left her home in Yellowknife. “I didn’t want to leave home, I was tearing up,” Sangris, of First Nations origin, told AFP. The 33-year-old housewife was evacuated Friday along with her husband and three children on one of several flights that landed in Calgary, more than 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) from the fires.
Calgary’s airport in the neighboring province of Alberta has become a reception center for the evacuees, in a massive operation without precedent in the region. Evacuees are registered as soon as they land in Calgary’s domestic flight terminal, some arriving with their pets. Volunteers and local officials offer food and water before transferring them to nearby hotels serving as shelters for the displaced. “I am very stressed and overwhelmed, so is my whole entire family. We’re all tired,” said Sangris, as she waited for a bus with her family to take them to their assigned hotel. “My daughter is barely two years old.
Everything is new to her, she doesn’t understand what’s going on. And my son, he’s five, he’s saying I want to go home,” she said. “We’re trying to make him understand that we can’t go home and there’s a very serious situation back home.” When authorities told her on Thursday to prepare to evacuate, Sangris said she tried not to panic. “I wanted to stay strong for my children.” But nerves and fear got the better of her. “I was tearing up. I didn’t want my son to see me,” she said.
When she decided to leave, she said she packed up her valuables, such as the first clothes her daughter wore after birth, photos of deceased relatives and pictures of her children at school. Although she said she is exhausted from the ordeal, she remained optimistic. “I’m just hoping that we all make it through this together and that we all go home safe and sound and that Yellowknife isn’t burned down.” – AFP
