Canada is experiencing a record-setting wildfire season, with official estimates of more than 14 million hectares already burned
Evacuation orders are underway in Kelowna in western Canada after a fire blazed across the town and grew 100 times in just 24 hours on August 19. Kelowna, a city of 150,000, was choked with thick smoke as it became the latest centre hit by one of the many wildfires scorching Canada this summer.
Rapidly evolving wildfires threatened large parts of the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. Around 30,000 people were under evacuation orders while another 36,000 were under alert to be ready to flee.
The Canadian government has said enough pilots will be made available to man the evacuation flights leaving the city. Amid accusations that some airlines are inflating prices for evacuation flights, officials have warned there will be zero tolerance on price surges.
On the other side of Okanagan Lake, a number of homes on the outskirts of West Kelowna have been burned, though authorities remained optimistic that the city could avoid a full evacuation.
Firefighters from Australia, Mexico, Brazil and Costa Rica, as well as eastern Canada, are assisting British Columbia to combat the blazes.
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 and almost twice the area of the last record of 7.3 million hectares.
Several hundred kilometers away, roughly half the population in Canada’s Northwest Territories are now displaced. Blazes in the Northwest Territories have prompted the evacuation of regional capital Yellowknife, leaving the remote city of around 20,000 largely a ghost town.
Work crews are building defences around the city, with large areas cleared to create firebreaks and pipes laid for sprinklers and water cannons but it is uncertain how successful these efforts will be.
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