Canadian military on alert as number of wildfires jumped to more than 170

OTTAWA, July 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Canadian military was on standby to help evacuate towns as the number of wildfires jumped to more than 170 fueled by a record-smashing heat wave and tinder-dry conditions.

At least 177 fires were active in the western province of British Columbia, 76 of them sparked in the last two days, officials said. Most were caused by intense lightning storms.

The fires were north of the city of Kamloops, 350 kilometers northeast of Vancouver.

“We saw 12,000 lightning strikes, roughly,” said Cliff Chapman, the director of provincial operations for British Columbia Wildfire Service.

“Many of those lightning strikes were hitting near communities, (as) was seen in the Kamloops area.”

“The dry conditions and the extreme heat in British Columbia are unprecedented,” Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said. “These wildfires show that we are in the earliest stages of what promises to be a long and challenging summer.”

Incident response groups that included several ministers have been formed to face the worsening situations.

One of the response group had set up an operations center in Edmonton, with up to 350 military personnel providing logistical support to the region, according to Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan. Military aircraft are also being deployed.

Roughly 1,000 people have fled the wildfires in British Columbia, with many others still missing.

The British Columbia medical examiner’s office said there had been 719 deaths in the past week, “three times more” than the average number recorded over the period.

Lisa Lapointe, the province’s chief coroner, said the extreme weather was likely “a significant contributing factor.”

British Columbia also warned of flooding from melting mountain snowcaps and glaciers.

The village of Lytton, 250 kilometers northeast of Vancouver, was evacuated Wednesday after a fire flared up and spread quickly. Nearly 90 percent of the village was torched, according to Brad Vis, an MP for the area.

On Tuesday, the village set a Canadian record of 49.6 degrees Celsius (121 degrees Fahrenheit).

The heat wave continued to spread across central Canada on Saturday, also affecting the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as well as parts of the Northwest Territories and northern Ontario.

Further south, the US states of Washington and Oregon have also suffered record temperatures.

The death toll in Oregon from heat-related causes has hit 94, the state’s medical examiner said late Friday.

Three wildfires in drought-hit northern California have scorched nearly 16,200 hectares, including a popular tourist lake preparing to welcome visitors for the July 4 holiday weekend. Evacuation orders were in place along stretches of Shasta Lake. — NNN-AGENCIES