A fast-moving wildfire in British Columbia has spread across more than 53 square miles, forcing about 22,000 people to flee their homes and prompting the federal government to step in with urgent assistance as 102 fires rage across the province.
The Bald Range fire, first detected late on Friday, doubled in size within hours and grew to more than 40 square miles, nearly twice the size of the island of Manhattan, as it raced nearly nine miles toward Okanagan Lake. By the time officials next assessed its perimeter, the blaze had expanded to more than 53 square miles across Summerland, Peachland, and other areas of British Columbia, according to the BC Wildfire Service. British Columbia Premier David Eby declared a state of emergency late on Saturday. He told reporters that the blaze had been “like a bomb going off.” “Homes have been lost, and properties have been destroyed. Some people became trapped as conditions changed very quickly, and needed to be rescued,” the premier said. The state of emergency grants the provincial government special powers, including travel restrictions, supply protections to prevent price gouging, and extra resources to coordinate rescue work.
Federal assistance and evacuations
Eleanor Olszewski, Canada’s minister of emergency management and community resilience, said in a social media post on Sunday that she had approved a request for federal assistance from British Columbia to provide shelter and accommodations for people who have been forced to leave their homes. She tasked federal officials, led by the government operations centre at Public Safety Canada, to work with the province to ensure support reaches those who need it most. Of the 102 wildfires burning across the province on Sunday, nearly half were classified as out of control, according to the BC Wildfire Service, and 78 of those fires ignited during the past week alone.
The entire community of Summerland, about 30 miles south-west of Kelowna and home to about 12,000 people, was evacuated overnight on Saturday, along with a further 8,000 people around nearby Peachland. About 10,000 others have been told to prepare to evacuate at a moment’s notice. The regional districts of Central Okanagan and Okanagan-Similkameen, as well as Snpink’tn Indian Band and the districts of Summerland and Peachland, have issued evacuation orders, with evacuation alerts in some areas.
Residents flee in the night
Residents were shaken awake in the middle of the night to flee their homes. Jennifer Pascoa, who lives in Summerland, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that she had begun to pack when she saw flames licking the nearby mountains. “It happened so quickly. We came home from the beach, we saw the plume of smoke, and then within an hour, the sky was covered in dark, black clouds,” she said. Hundreds of residents in Summerland care facilities, including senior housing, were being relocated to safer areas, according to Interior Health. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they were investigating a possible fatality in the fire near Summerland. It was not yet clear how many structures had been destroyed in the blaze. “A lot of farms have been affected. We don’t know how many structures have been lost. They’re still busy fighting the fire,” Summerland Mayor Doug Holmes said.
In Okanagan, residents struggled to evacuate horses, with some unable to relocate their animals leaving gates open in the hope the animals would find their own way to safety, according to CBC. Some owners painted markings on their animals to make them easier to identify later. The BC Wildfire Service said 10 standard helicopters and one night-vision helicopter were involved in the response, but had been hindered by thick smoke, turbulence, and large fires. The flames were so high that they created their own weather systems, which produce lightning.
Climate conditions drive extreme fire behavior
Cliff Chapman, the BC Wildfire Service’s director of provincial operations, said prolonged hot and dry weather had produced explosive fire conditions never seen before. Lightning caused by thunderstorms forecast this week could make the situation still worse, he said. Mike Flannigan, a professor of wildland fire at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, said southern British Columbia and the Pacific north-west had little to no rain in the past six weeks, leaving the regions bone dry. “You walk through the forest, it crunches; if you look sideways, you start a fire,” Flannigan said. He attributed the conditions to human-caused climate change. “We’re seeing higher intensity fires today than the past ... the shorter the timeframe, the more challenging it is,” he said.
Before this decade, fire agencies’ policy held that if a blaze was 20km, or 12 miles, from a community, there was no cause for immediate concern. The ferocity and speed of these fires meant that such calculations no longer held, Flannigan said, warning that all homes in at-risk regions should have an emergency kit ready to go. “If a fire can run 60km in a day, you should be worried about it,” he said. The Bald Range fire was also an example of how fires could metastasise through the night, he said. Traditional firefighting practices would usually give firefighters a break during nightfall, as cooler air would slow the burning. “That’s not the case any more. The fire roars through the evening, through the night, and we’re seeing this more and more,” he said. Drought and the sheer power and size of the fires during the day allow them to keep momentum even in the dark. Fire management agencies in BC and Alberta now fight fires after dark using night-vision helicopters. Current conditions indicated that the fire season in British Columbia and the US states of Washington and Oregon could extend into the autumn, Flannigan said. “It looks grim ... there’s no rain,” he said. Like California, Canada may begin to have “fire years” instead of a summer fire season, he said. “I’m scared for the coming weeks,” Flannigan said.
Smoke drifts into the United States
Hundreds of wildfires have raged across Canada this summer, with nearly 200 burning in Ontario in July, sending air quality in Toronto to one of the worst levels in the world for a few days. Smoke from those Canadian wildfires drifted down into parts of the US, including Minnesota and New York, leading US President Donald Trump to threaten new tariffs on the US’s northern neighbour.