International

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The flames that sparked wildfires in the province of British Columbia in western Canada worsened on Saturday (19/8/2023). As a result, the local government increased the evacuation coverage to twice the previous level.

Canada's westernmost province declared a state of emergency on Friday (8/18/2023) due to uncontrolled fires. The fire closed parts of the main highway connecting the Pacific coast to other areas and destroyed many properties.

“The current situation is gloomy,” Prime Minister Daniel Eby told Reuters journalists last Saturday. He said about 35,000 people were under evacuation orders and another 30,000 were under evacuation warnings.

Eby said the province urgently needed shelter for evacuees and firefighters and he also ordered restrictions on outdoor activities for its population. Authorities also urged residents to avoid using drones in fire zones, 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. Wildfires are not uncommon in Canada, but the spread of this fire makes it one of the worst.

About 90,000 square miles of land, roughly the size of New York state, have burned, and government officials predict the fire season could extend into the fall due to widespread fire conditions. drought type in Canada.

The severity of the fires was fueled by high winds and dry lightning in recent days, as cold air masses interacted with warm air accumulating in the region's summer heat.

“We are still in critical dry conditions and we still have tough days ahead of us,” said Jerrad Schroeder, deputy director of the Kamloops Fire Center.

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

Previously, fires also occurred in Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, Canada. The fires led to 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 main route used by thousands of motorists and truckers heading to Vancouver, the country's busiest port.

(pgr/pgr)