The British Columbia Wildfire Service has listed 99 active fires, with as many as 78 reported within the last two days. Among the worst hit areas is the hamlet of Lytton and its vicinity.
Days of a historic heatwave in the Canadian province of British Columbia have led to a spate of devastating wildfires and as the crisis mounts, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called an emergency meeting on Friday in this regard.
The British Columbia Wildfire Service has listed 99 active fires, with as many as 78 reported within the last two days. More than half of those were caused by lightning strikes that ignited trees and woods that were left dry due to the historic temperatures recorded in the province over the past week.
Trudeau will chair a meeting of the Incident Response Group, a crisis and emergency management committee, on Friday “to discuss the extreme weather-related conditions in British Columbia and the wildfire situation throughout Western Canada”, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
