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Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The flames that started a wildfire in Canada’s western province of British Columbia grew larger on Saturday (8/19/2023). As a result, the local government doubled the scope of evacuation from before.

Canada’s westernmost province declared a state of emergency on Friday (8/18/2023) due to wildfires spiraling out of control. The fire spread to closed sections of the main highway between the Pacific Coast and other areas and destroyed much of the property.

“The current situation is grim,” Prime Minister Daniel Eby told Reuters reporters on Saturday. He said around 35,000 people were under evacuation orders and another 30,000 under evacuation warnings.

Eby said the province urgently needed shelter for refugees and firefighters and he also ordered restrictions on outdoor activities for his people. Officials also urged residents to avoid using drones in fire areas, saying it could hamper firefighting efforts.

The center of the fire is around Kelowna, a city about 300 kilometers east of Vancouver with a population of about 150,000 people. Wildfires are not uncommon in Canada, but this time the spread makes it the worst.

About 140,000 km of land, roughly the size of New York State, has been burned, and government officials predict the fire season could continue well into the fall due to conditions such as widespread drought in Canada.

The severity of these fires has been fueled by high winds and dry lightning in recent days as cold air masses interact with warm air that builds up during the region’s summers.

“We are still in critical dry conditions and still have tough days ahead,” said Jerrad Schroeder, assistant fire center manager at Kamloops Fire Center.

In response to this, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau convened a meeting of key ministers and senior officials on Saturday. The incident response group, which is meeting for the second time this week, has agreed to provide “additional resources” for British Columbia and the Northwest Territories (NWT).

Previously, fires also occurred in Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, Canada. The fires prompted the evacuation of almost all of its 20,000 residents this week. A patient has died while being transferred from Yellowknife, a Northwest Territories minister said Saturday.

As a result, the Trans-Canada Highway was closed near Chase, about 400 km northeast of Vancouver, and between Hope, 150 km east of Vancouver, and the village of Lytton. The highway is the primary route used by thousands of motorists and truckers to Vancouver, the country’s busiest port.

(pgr/pgr)