Flames and smoke from the Shetland Creek Wildfire rise from the hills above Highway 1, where people are on evacuation alert in B.C.'s southern interior outside Ashcroft, on July 20.Jesse Winter/Reuters
Extreme heat across Alberta and British Columbia fuelled numerous wildfires on the weekend, forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes and choking much of the region with thick smoke.
Temperatures in Western Canada hovered in the 30s C – and areas of the B.C. Interior surpassed 40 C – triggering heat warnings for much of the region. Forecasts called for more of the same at least until the middle of this week, along with windy conditions in some areas, generating ideal conditions for blazes to expand.
Heavy smoke prompted Environment Canada to issue air quality warnings covering much of the region, a now-familiar occurrence each summer owing to hot and dry conditions that have been worsened by climate change.
On Sunday in Alberta, 154 wildfires were burning, including the Semo Complex, which forced the evacuation of the Little Red River Cree Nation, in the northern part of the province.
The nation encompasses three communities – Fox Lake, Garden River and John D’Or Prairie – and is home to more than 5,000 people. The largest of five fires in the complex had grown to 900 square kilometres on Sunday and was just 4.2 kilometres from the Fox Lake community, according to Alberta Wildfire.
Members of that community were displaced by the Paskwa and Davidson Lake wildfires last year, when more than 100 buildings were destroyed, including an RCMP detachment and a store. Residents of Garden River were told to leave on July 10, and the latest evacuation order for Fox Creek and John D’Or came into effect on Saturday.
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“I never thought we’d be doing this again, a year after the Paskwa-Davidson Complex fires, especially with what we went through with Fox Lake. Now we have to do a nationwide evacuation,” Little Red River Cree Chief Conroy Sewepagaham said in a video posted on the First Nation’s social-media page.
About 200 firefighters, 10 helicopters and 132 pieces of heavy equipment were battling the fire. Wildfires near Fort McMurray and Lac La Biche were also considered top priority. In total, 7,500 people were under evacuation in Alberta.
Christie Tucker, wildfire information unit manager, said the lengthy heat wave has yielded more fires than the province experienced in the spring, which is normally the most active period. The thick smoke has brought some upside, she said, by lowering temperatures somewhat and increasing the humidity close to the ground.
“We were anticipating potential extreme wildfire activity this weekend, but it did turn out, rather surprisingly, that the smoke did us a favour as far as firefighting goes,” Ms. Tucker said.
In Edmonton, city officials activated two formal extreme weather responses effect: one covering the bad air quality with smoke blanketing the city, and the other covering the heat. The city said on its website that people seeking respite could go to recreation centres, libraries and indoor pools. Staff were on hand to distribute N95 masks to those requiring them, it said.
In B.C., there were 320 active wildfires burning, with some of the largest out-of-control blazes near Kamloops as well as in the Slocan Valley to the east.
In recent days, municipal authorities issued evacuation orders and alerts for parts of villages of Cache Creek and Ashcroft, located west of Kamloops, owing to danger posed by the Shetland Creek fire, which had grown to 148 square kilometres. In total there were nine evacuation orders in effect in the province and 15 alerts to ready residents to potentially leave their homes.
Ashcroft’s 1,700 residents were on alert in case the fire advanced on the village. An area to the southwest is already under evacuation order, though there are few homes there. Mayor Barbara Roden said a drop in the wind on Sunday had slowed the growth of the fire, though residents were still coping with thick smoke and heat.
The village struggled with major nearby blazes in 2017 and in 2021, and are now accustomed to the drill, such as saying doors and keeping windows closed, the mayor said.
“Obviously it’s very stressful, and there’s that initial feeling of being very on edge, very nervous,” Ms. Roden said. “And living under a state of evacuation alert is not pleasant, but people are calm. I’ve heard that people are preparing to-go bags if they need to evacuate.”
Most of the fires this year have been caused by lightning, though a campfire ban remains in place for almost all of the province.
The situation remains dangerous after three weeks of searing temperatures and little precipitation, said Donna MacPherson, fire information officer for BC Wildfire Service. That is expected to remain the case for the next several days, with winds picking up Sunday and Monday, and some chance of lightning in the north.
“So all of that together means we are very much in wildfire season,” she said.
B.C. suffered its most destructive wildfire season in 2023. So far this year, the numbers are sticking close to the 10 year average, Ms. McPherson said.