WEST KELOWNA, British Columbia (AP) — A deadly wildfire in western Canada that has forced some 20,000 people to flee grew overnight even without strong winds, challenging efforts to contain it and fully assess the damage, authorities said Tuesday.
One hundred firefighters from Mexico have joined the effort, bringing the number of firefighters battling the blaze to 193. The fire has destroyed homes and other properties near Okanagan Lake, killed an 80-year-old woman and burned toward Summerland, a community of about 12,000 people roughly 300 kilometers (185 miles) east of Vancouver.
The fire showed “quite significant growth” in some areas overnight even without strong winds, said Cliff Chapman, director of provincial operations for the British Columbia Wildfire Service. He added crews were working around the clock to establish control lines and make it safe for evacuated residents to return home.
“We recognized and we heard even last night that people obviously would like to go home. They would like to see the extent of the damage,” Chapman said.
Provincial officials ramp up evacuations
Kevin Dunbar, British Columbia’s executive director for emergency response and recovery operations, called it one of the largest evacuations in recent British Columbia history.
British Columbia officials said they had secured 1,600 hotel rooms and 1,000 group-lodging spaces for evacuees in Okanagan after some residents faced delays getting emergency assistance during the weekend evacuation.
Beyond those already forced to flee, another 10,000 people have been told to be ready to leave on short notice. More than 100 wildfires were burning across the province, and officials warned that dry lightning could spark new fires in the Central Interior and Okanagan. The province also asked the federal government for help expanding lodging for evacuees.
RCMP are investigating whether criminal activity played a role in the fire. Chapman said about 4% of wildfires in British Columbia over the past decade were suspected of having been deliberately set, but officials have not said the Bald Range fire was intentionally started.
Evacuated residents recount emotional experience
Lucille and Gordon Beach of Summerland were in Vancouver for the weekend wedding of a granddaughter when they heard the fire had started. “We didn’t feel too celebratory,” Lucille Beach said Tuesday.
The couple, staying for now in West Kelowna with their dog, haven’t seen their home since leaving Friday but believed it was OK. It took a few days to adjust to the reality of what was happening, Lucille Beach said.
Carmen Bodzasy evacuated from Summerland, where she and her husband moved recently. She had to navigate evacuating on unfamiliar roads while he was away for work.
Before leaving, “I cried my eyes out for a minute, and I thought, you know what, if I had to restart over, what would I take with me?” She took photos of her parents’ wedding, of her children’s families and of her and her husband. “I thought if I didn’t have walls to go home to, at least I have memories to put up on my new one,” she said.
Holding her small dog Tuesday, she was not sure of the status of their home but said whatever happens, she intends to stay in Summerland, a place where people wave at passing motorists and stop to ask how you’re doing.
“I’ll do whatever I can to help that town rebuild because everybody’s so kind there,” she said.
The lack of information has frustrated some Summerland residents, who have turned to photos and videos posted online from inside the evacuated community.
Firefighters battle blazes across the US
In the United States, firefighters in California were fighting a blaze that has burned nearly 5 square miles (about 12 square kilometers) in the Big Sur region of the state’s rugged central coast.
Area state parks have closed and evacuation orders have been issued, including for a roughly 7-mile (11-kilometer) stretch of Highway 1, the state’s iconic coastal route. Portions of the highway were closed on Tuesday due to the fire’s spread and evacuations, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Along the Nevada-California border, a quick-moving blaze north of Reno spread to about 90.6 square miles (234.7 square kilometers), according to officials. More than 4,000 people and families were displaced, and a memory care facility had to be evacuated, Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam said during a news conference. Hot, dry and windy conditions were adding to the fire threat.
The fire has merged with another blaze that was burning on Freds Mountain. The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office arrested a 47-year-old woman on a third-degree arson charge in connection with that mountain fire after she told crews responding to it that she had started it, the sheriff’s department said in a post on social media Tuesday.
In Minnesota, a person involved in fighting a wildfire near the town of Ely died Tuesday following an unspecified medical emergency, the Superior National Forest said in a social media statement. Further details were not immediately released.
At least eight other people have died while helping with wildfires in the U.S. this year, including four firefighters who got trapped in a fire in western Colorado, a bulldozer operator who got overrun by flames in Oregon, two helicopter pilots who crashed while helping fight a fire in Utah and a helicopter pilot in Colorado who crashed into a reservoir.
