Premier, wildfire service to provide update as more than 380 wildfires burn in B.C. | Globalnews.ca
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With more than 380 wildfires continuing to burn across British Columbia, Premier David Eby is set to provide an update on the province’s state of emergency.
Eby will be joined by Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma, Forests Minister Bruce Ralston and members of the BC Wildfire Service in the 12:05 p.m. briefing.
Global News will livestream the news conference on its website and Facebook page, and on BC1.
As of Sunday afternoon, some 30,000 people were under evacuation orders in B.C., with about 36,000 more on standby to leave. At least 50 structures have been lost so far in West Kelowna, where the McDougall Creek fire still burns.
While there’s a chance of rain in the forecast in many parts of the province where fires are burning, the wildfire service’s Forrest Tower said the firefight is expected to be “challenging” on Monday.
“Today is most likely going to be the last day of challenging weather that’s going to still have some fairly aggressive fire behaviour potentially,” Tower said in an interview with Global News.
“After after getting through today, we should potentially receive some precipitation into this evening, into tomorrow, and then much lower wind speed.”
The Regional District of East Kootenay rescinded evacuation alerts for the Bear Mountain, Lake Enid and Horsethief Creek areas on Monday morning. On Sunday, evacuation orders were also downgraded to alerts in Kelowna’s Quail Ridge and University of British Columbia campus areas.
In the Columbia Shuswap region, however, the Bush Creek East fire still rages at more than 41,000 hectares in size, with more than 100 firefighters and 14 helicopters still trying to contain it. Forrest said the shape of that fire — which is not a rectangle or a circle — poses a particular challenge.
“It has a lot of arms at this point, so the length of that perimeter, even if it’s growing 100 metres outwards along that entire perimeter, that’s going to add up to thousands of hectares of growth,” Tower explained.
“So, likely to see some growth in terms of several thousands of hectares once we get some more improved mapping. It might not be in one particular direction.”
That fire — the result of the Lower East Adams Lake fire merging with an adjacent fire — has had “widespread and devastating” impacts in the Shuswap Lake area, he added.
Under the provincial state of emergency, the non-essential use of accommodations such as hotels, motels, inns, hostels, RV parks and campgrounds remains restricted in Kelowna, West Kelowna, Kamloops, Oliver, Osoyoos, Penticton and Vernon.
That order remains in effect until Labour Day.
While it doesn’t impact travel throughout the region, the province is asking British Columbians to avoid non-essential travel to the central Interior and southeast of B.C.
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