Topline
A series of devastating wildfires that have engulfed vast swaths of forest in British Columbia and the Northwest Territories continued to grow overnight on Friday, officials said Saturday morning, threatening to destroy the cities of Yellowknife and Kelowna, a city of more than 132,000 people, amid Canada’s worst wildfire season on record.
The McDougall Creek wildfire burns in the hills West Kelowna, British Columbia.
Key Facts
Officials in British Columbia declared a state of emergency throughout the province late Friday, as the McDougall Creek fire continues to spread “out of control” roughly 6 miles northwest of the city of Kelowna, according to the British Columbia Wildfire Service.
Despite overnight efforts to battle the fire in neighborhoods and other areas where the fire was posing threats to residents, those recovery efforts were “poor,” the Wildfire Service said, and officials will be reassessing which areas to prioritize Saturday morning—the fire has burned nearly 26,000 acres (just over 40 square miles) as of Saturday.
Local officials issued evacuation orders and alerts in 13 municipalities and regional districts, as well as 18 First Nations in the province, and urged residents there to leave immediately or be ready to leave on short notice.
In the rural Northwest Territories, officials had also issued evacuation orders for nearly 20,000 residents on Wednesday, including in the territory’s capital Yellowknife, as Canada’s Environment Minister Shane Thompson warned the wildfires pose a “real threat” to the capital and could reach the city by this weekend.
Residents in the Northwest Territories unable to evacuate by car or who are immunocompromised had been told to register for evacuation flights—Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair on Wednesday told the CBC he was preparing to order the country’s Armed Forces to airlift residents out of Yellowknife, which has a population of roughly 20,000.
What We Don’t Know
When the fires will be controlled or suppressed. British Columbia’s Wildfire Service said firefighters are contending with the effects of a cold dry front in the area, which brings the potential for gusty winds and dry lightning, which can “cause rapid growth and fast rates of spread on existing fires.”
Big Number
33.8 million. That’s how many acres have burned in Canada so far this year, according to the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System—an area bigger than the size of Alabama, and nearly doubling Canada’s previous annual record (18.3 million acres) set in 1989.
Surprising Fact
Canada’s Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez on Friday requested Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta lift its recently instituted ban on news articles posted by Canadian outlets in an effort to provide residents with up-to-date information on the wildfires. Meta in June had blocked access to news links on its platforms for users in Canada in opposition to a law requiring internet companies to pay news outlets for content posted online.
Further Reading
Canada Wildfires: 20,000 Evacuating Regional Capital Amid ‘Unprecedented’ Fires (Forbes)
Canadian Government Demands Facebook And Instagram Lift Ban On Canadian News Amid Wildfires (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/08/19/canada-wildfire-latest-british-columbia-declares-state-of-emergency-yellowknife-fire-approaches-city/