Wildfires Claim Second B.C. Town

 


Add the resort town of Monte Lake to the conflagration last month that erased the town of Lytton, B.C.

On Thursday evening, the White Rock Lake wildfire jumped a highway and sped towards Monte Lake. Residents had been ordered to evacuate and no fatalities were reported.

“I understand from the BC wildfire that this fire moved 18km in a matter of eight hours,” Ken Gillis, chairman of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, told the Canadian Press on Friday. “I’ve talked to a number of firefighters who said this year’s fires are behaving in a manner that they have never seen before. They’re just exceedingly aggressive and it’s almost impossible to get ahead of them.”

Strong winds are expected to help the blaze, which already measures 325 sq km, grow even stronger.

The blaze at Monte Lake comes a month after a wildfire destroyed most of the village of Lytton, killing two people.

Meanwhile, as the White Rock Lake fire closes in on Kamloops from the southeast the city has put residents of Dallas, Barnhartvale and Campbell Creek neighbourhoods on evacuation alert. Residents are at the mercy of prevailing winds that can change direction quickly.

Some rain is on the way for B.C. but, according to the Weather Network, it will be along the coast and isn't expected to reach the interior wildfires.

"There's two outlooks to think about: the first is the outlook for the rest of the summer, and the outlook for the rest of the summer is hot and dry," said James Johnston, a forest management and wildfire expert at Oregon State University.

"Then there's the outlook for summers to come, and that outlook is even hotter and drier."

Update:

Most residents of the city of Vernon (40,000) have been put on evacuation alert. 

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