Wildfires sparked by lightning over the weekend have prompted a number of evacuation orders and alerts across British Columbia, a situation that has been exacerbated by the ongoing heat wave.
The BC Wildfire Service said Sunday that crews are battling more than 300 fires, with several evacuation orders in effect in the central and eastern Kootenays as well as Thompson-Nicola, Cariboo and Bulkley-Nechako in the northwest.
“Fire suppression efforts continue to be challenged by hot, dry conditions and winds,” the agency said in its Sunday update.
“A three-week heat wave continues, with warmer, drier conditions expected to persist across much of the province.”
Environment Canada said 14 British Columbia communities broke or tied their daily high temperature records Saturday, with Lytton hitting 41.2 degrees, breaking a record of 40.6 degrees set in 1946.
Record temperatures also occurred in the communities of Cranbrook, Merritt, Princeton and Vernon, with all five reaching at least 36 degrees.
Firefighters say high temperatures have made conditions difficult, with crews having to prioritise first-time fires over newly discovered blazes.
Lightning, the main culprit
One of those fires is the Island Pond fire, about 17 kilometres south of Canal Flats, B.C., in the East Kootenays, which was discovered Saturday and had grown to about a square kilometre by Sunday.
The East Kootenay Regional District has declared a state of local emergency and issued an evacuation order for two addresses. It has also warned 65 other properties to prepare to leave at short notice.
The Cariboo Regional District in central British Columbia has been ordered to evacuate immediately as five wildfires burn out of control near the region. The notice affects residents on 29 parcels of land in the Kuyakuz Lake area, covering 923 square kilometres.
Four of these five fires were caused by lightning.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE CANADIAN PRESS
A wildfire on Steamboat Mountain, July 17
The regional district has also issued alerts for the Barkerville Historic Town and Park heritage site, where a cluster of out-of-control fires – including the 13.5-square-kilometre Antler Creek fire – are raging in the area.
The same fire prompted an evacuation order for the community of Wells, B.C., on Sunday, with the local government of Antler Creek calling the situation a “significant threat to the health, safety and well-being of people.”
The new evacuation orders and alerts come as the Shetland Creek fire, about eight kilometres north of Spences Bridge, B.C., grows to about 150 square kilometres.
The BC Wildfire Service dashboard shows about 87 per cent of the more than 300 fires burning in the province were caused by lightning.
All evacuation orders and alerts related to the Shetland Creek wildfire in the Thompson-Nicola region of British Columbia remained in effect Sunday for communities including Ashcroft, Cache Creek, Spences Bridge and Ashcroft First Nation.
In the central Kootenays, the community of Silverton, B.C., also remained on alert Sunday while 107 properties south of the village were under evacuation orders due to the nearby Aylwin Creek wildfire.
Aylwin Creek and nearby Komonko Creek remained a combined 6.5 square kilometres of burning Sunday, and Highway 6 south of Silverton was closed due to two out-of-control wildfires.
Evacuation orders have also been issued across Slocan Lake from Silverton, with residents and visitors to 21 waterfront lots as well as a small portion of Valhalla Provincial Park near Nemo Creek being asked to leave immediately.