A security worker walks near a burned down gas station after the Bush Creek wildfire destroyed dozens of homes in multiple rural communities including Scotch Creek, Lee Creek and Celista in the North Shuswap Lake region of B.C. on. Aug. 23.JESSE WINTER/Reuters
British Columbia and the Northwest Territories both extended their states of emergency this week as tens of thousands of residents remain displaced or ready to flee a sudden blaze even as the cooler temperatures of September arrive.
B.C. Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma said Thursday that extreme drought conditions continue to pose a risk across the province, and that winds in the north could intensify large-scale fires there. She said several thousand people have been able to return home in the last few days, thanks to some rainfall in the province’s Southern Interior, but that 4,200 people are still under evacuation order and another 65,000 are under alert.
That includes hundreds of students who are set to return to class next week.
Ms. Ma said two schools are in communities under evacuation order and 17 are in communities under alert. Provincial and local officials are considering options such as moving students to neighbouring school districts, opening up temporary buildings or starting the academic year online.
“We are slowly moving beyond the worst part of this wildfire season … but we are still far from being in the clear,” Ms. Ma said.
B.C.’s state of emergency, which began on Aug. 19, will remain in place until Sept. 14. Ms. Ma said their greatest concern is how easily ignitable drought conditions have made the province. Of B.C.’s 34 water basins, 27 of them are at a level 4 or 5, the two most severe classifications.
With reports from The Canadian Press and Alanna Smith