‘A matter of life or death’: in the face of fires in Canada, tens of thousands of residents were ordered to flee

British Columbia is on fire. In this western province, authorities this Saturday urged tens of thousands of residents to take evacuation orders seriously. They concern 30,000 people. Another 36,000 are on high alert and ready to flee.

‘Extreme’ wildfires threaten much of the scenic Okanagan Valley, including the city of Kelowna. The situation in the area, popular with boaters and hikers, is changing rapidly, said Bowinn Ma, emergency manager for western British Columbia.

Kelowna, a city of 150,000 people choking on thick smoke, has become the latest urban center to be the victim of dramatic wildfires across Canada, where millions of hectares have burned. Firefighters from Australia, Mexico, Brazil and Costa Rica and eastern Canada are helping British Columbia fight the fire.

“We insist on the absolute importance of the immediate implementation of evacuation orders,” said Bowinn Ma at a press conference: “This is a matter of life and death for the people who are in these houses, as well as for the rescuers, who are sometimes forced to come back and ask people to leave “.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he spoke with the Prime Minister of British Columbia.David Eby, on the “fast-paced and incredibly devastating wildfire situation” and on the allocation of federal resources.

“I will never forget this: my daughter turned 20 years old. And here we are,” says Shelley Davis in the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail. This woman had to be evacuated with her husband on the night of Thursday to Friday. And this Saturday, she watched the house in which she lived for seven years burn.

Many people have lost their homes. “They worked so hard to restore this place when they bought it in 2015. It was a foreclosure and the house was demolished,” Keramia Laurie says of her parents’ home that was destroyed by fire in The Vancouver Sun, a major area of ​​British Columbia. newspaper. I know how hard they worked to build this place and I know they will never ask for help. »

“One house, then another, and then another”

“You could see several houses on my street burning: one house, then the next and another, I don’t know how far the fire went,” Claire Baker told the Victoria Times colonist. She lived in the city for 13 years. And when the fires intensified, she went down to the Kelowna waterfront to watch the flames. Authorities said a “significant number” of homes burned down in West Kelowna.

These fires came days after the Yellowknife fires, where thousands of residents were forced to flee the city. “This is the first time something like this, of this magnitude, has happened in the region,” Tony Whitford, 82, told AFP on Saturday. He and his family were evacuated on Thursday from Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, surrounded by fires for days, to Calgary, Alberta, about 1,750 kilometers to the south.

Yellowknife saw some respite on Saturday as overnight rains caused temperatures to plummet. However, “a little rain doesn’t mean it’s safe to go home,” Northwest Territories Environment Minister Shane Thompson warned at a press conference Saturday night. “Even though the fire is not visible on the surface, it is active and huge,” he said, adding that temperatures are expected to rise further on Sunday.

There are currently more than a thousand fires raging across Canada from east to west, including more than 230 in the Northwest Territories and more than 370 in British Columbia. The country is experiencing a record-breaking wildfire season this year, with 14 million hectares burned, roughly the size of Greece.