maaxx.ca

Flames and smoke were visible from West Kelowna, and smoke filled the valley surrounding the lake. Previously, the region's airspace had been closed to make way for water bombers.

West Kelowna is a city of 36,000 located approximately 300 kilometers (180 mi) east of Vancouver.





Evacuations were also underway north of Kelowna, a city of about 150,000 also located on Okanagan Lake.

This is a dire and unprecedented situation, as British Columbia Premier David Eby expressed in declaring a state of emergency.

“We are facing the worst fire season in the history of our province,” he said.

“This unprecedented situation has come to a head this evening. In just the last 24 hours, the situation has developed and deteriorated very rapidly,” he added.

Tens of thousands of residents had little time to immediately evacuate.

On Thursday, more than 1,500 people were evacuated by plane. Currently, 22 additional planes are planned to help residents leave their homes.

According to reports Reutersabout 65 percent of the Northwest Territories' 46,000 residents are expected to be evacuated.

Authorities said the fire could spread to the city this weekend.

“It is possible that this fire reached the outskirts of Yellowknife over the weekend, driven by northwest and northwest winds,” the Northwest Territories Fire Service said.

“Effective firefighting efforts have contained significant developments over the past two days,” he continued.

Firefighters continue to put out more than 200 fires in the region.

The agency said there would be two days of winds likely to push the fire toward Ingraham Trail.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held a meeting with incident response groups on Thursday to discuss the fires and their impact on infrastructure.

Experts say climate change has exacerbated wildfires, of which Canada has seen many blazes this year. More than 13.7 million hectares have burned this season, with smoke spreading toward the United States and even across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe.