General

376 wildfires still blazing in B.C.

One dead after ignoring evacuation order

Officials say 80 per cent of British Columbia is now at extreme or high risk for forest fires after a dozen new blazes over the weekend brought the total to 376 fires as of Tuesday. The cause of most of the fires is believed to be lightning from a storm that swept across the province last week. Two thousand firefighters are working around the clock to contain the blazes, some of which have been burning for two weeks or more. The Cariboo region in the province’s Interior was hit the worst, where as many as one-third of the blazes are burning out of control, officials estimate. Evacuation orders are in effect across much of the region, but at last count, 53 people in the area refused to leave. A 52-year-old man from Quesnel died Sunday when he was struck by a tree while he was cutting trees for firewood after failing to immediately flee the evacuation zone.

CBC

Tags:Canada