1,000 Canadians flee heatwave and fires in the West

Published on : 07/02/2021 – 00:41

About a thousand people were evacuated Wednesday evening in British Columbia, in western Canada, due to fires added to the unprecedented heat wave, authorities announced Thursday, July 1 at the end of the day. Province.

British Columbia has recorded 62 new fires in the past 24 hours, BC Premier John Horgan told a media briefing. “I can only stress that the risk of fire is currently extreme in almost all parts of British Columbia and I urge British Columbians to listen carefully to authorities and follow directions,” he said. he hurried.

John Horgan said he asked for reinforcements from Justin Trudeau’s federal government. “The past 24 hours have been devastating for residents of Lytton. Our @ForcesCanada (Canadian Armed Forces, Editor’s note) are ready to help residents, ”confirmed Canadian Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan on Twitter.

Provincial authorities have so far not announced any injuries or deaths related to these fires, which were noted in particular north of the city of Kamloops, located 350 km northeast of Vancouver.

At around 5 p.m., the British Columbia Fire Department said it expected “another very difficult day with wildfires” due to “unprecedented hot and dry conditions in recent years. days”.

“An exceptionally strong ridge over British Columbia will continue to bring record temperatures over the next two days,” Environment Canada also said in a bulletin released early Thursday morning for the Prince George region in British Columbia. . “The duration of this heatwave is worrying, because there is little respite from the heat at night due to the high night temperatures,” he added.

A destroyed village

The Canadian village of Lytton, some 250 km northeast of Vancouver, now famous for having this week set a national heat record of 49.6 ° Celsius, has been almost completely destroyed. The 250 residents had been evacuated Wednesday evening due to a fire that spread very quickly. The evacuation order was then extended, overnight Wednesday to Thursday, to residents of a hundred properties north of Lytton.

On Thursday, the heat wave continued to move eastward across the prairies of central Canada. Apart from British Columbia, heatwave warnings have been issued for the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, as well as part of the Northwest Territories, and now northern Ontario.

In addition to western Canada, the US states of Washington and Oregon, across the border, also suffocated this week in record temperatures and several hundred sudden deaths were recorded.

With AFP