Wildfire threatens to destroy town in British Colombia
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By: Leyland Cecco
May 13, 2024
Officials in western Canada were bracing for “volatile wildfire activity” on Monday as an out-of-control blaze, which has already forced the evacuation of thousands, threatened to destroy a northern British Columbia town.
The province’s wildfire service said the blaze was burning just 2km (1.2 miles) north-west of Fort Nelson, which has already seen about 3,500 people evacuated from there after an order to leave was issued on Friday.
“We are facing some extremely challenging conditions up in the north,” BC’s emergency management minister, Bowinn Ma, told reporters on Monday.
In a video posted on social media late on Sunday, the fire behavior specialist Ben Boghean with the wildfire service said the extreme fire behavior – made worse by years of drought and a below-normal snowpack this past winter – could end up threatening the crews that have been fighting the Parker Lake wildfire.
In 2023, Canada witnessed a record number of wildfires that also caused choking smoke in parts of the US and forced more than 250,000 Canadians to evacuate their communities. There were no civilian casualties, but at least four firefighters died while battling the fires.
To read the full article, click here:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/13/canada-wildfires-british-columbia-evacuation
