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Evacuations ordered as fires cross the west coast of Canada News

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Residents of several parts of British Columbia have been ordered to do so evacuate Because there are fires in the province of Canada heat wave record officials say they caused hundreds of deaths.

At around noon on Saturday, 176 fires were considered active across BC, of ​​which 76 were reported in the last two days, according to BC Wildfire Service control panel.

“Overall, we’re three weeks ahead of the drying cycle,” Cliff Chapman, BC Wildfire Service’s director of regional operations, told reporters Friday afternoon. reported By CBC News.

“It’s not on par with past seasons due to the heat wave created in June.”

Chapman said about 12,000 lightning strikes across the province on Thursday alone, CTV News also reported reported.

The fires come after the western province of Canada he had record temperatures last week, with the town of Lytton, about 275 km (170 miles) northeast of Vancouver inland inland BC, breaking a nationwide record for several days in a row.

Lytton ordered an evacuation of the entire community after a horrific fire broke out this week, forcing residents to flee. At least two people have been killed, local media reported.

“There was panic,” said First Nation lead actor John Haugen Lytton reported By the CBC. “He exploded and took everything in his path.”

On Friday evening, Canadian National Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan said the federal government was creating an emergency response base in Edmonton, Alberta, to help respond to fires.

“We will locate more air resources in Edmonton as soon as possible, including a Hercules aircraft and two medium-heavy lift Chinook helicopters. They can be used to provide air transportation for firefighters and equipment to enter affected areas and to help evacuate outsiders and residents, ”Sajjan said on Twitter.

The BC government has also announced support for local governments and First Nations disasters caused by the fires.

“As the Prime Minister said yesterday, the provincial and federal governments will be there to help rebuild the Lytton community,” said public safety minister and attorney Mike Farnworth.

Experts say climate change is driving the start of the fire season and the last heat, meteorologists say is linked to the so-called “heat dome” – a weather system that traps hot air – that has fallen off the west coast as well as the northwestern United States. .

Officials and residents continue to struggle with the heat.

BC chief prosecutor Lisa Lapointe said there were 719 deaths on Friday between June 25 and July 1, which is three times more likely than it would normally be in a similar period. He said many of the deaths occurred among elderly people living alone in low-ventilation private homes.

“We are releasing this information because it is believed that the extreme weather in BC last week is an important factor in increasing the number of deaths,” Lapoint said in a statement.

A fire broke out on the outskirts of the town of Lytton, and he entered and was forced to evacuate them all, in British Columbia, on the 1st of July. [Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters]

“In some parts of the province temperatures remain unusually high, and it is important for all of us to pay special attention to avoiding the dangerous effects of severe heat. Please seek out family, friends and neighbors, especially those living alone.”

Colton Davies, a reporter for Radio NL News in Kamloops, BC, said the situation was “very, very serious.”

“Where I am in Kamloops, there are several significant out-of-control fires that are burning outside the city limits,” Davies told Al Jazeera on Saturday.

“In the last four days or so, we are talking about more than 75,000 hectares of forest [have] I am the only one who has lost myself in these destructive fires. “



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