British Columbia on high alert as wildfires rage

Bangkok Post

Thousands of British Columbia (B.C.) residents were on high evacuation alert on Saturday as strong winds and dry lightning in the past 36 hours intensified existing forest fires and ignited new ones. - REUTERS

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00:00 Thousands of residents in British Columbia were on a high evacuation alert on Saturday

00:07 after rapidly intensifying wildfires forced the Canadian province to declare a state of

00:12 emergency.

00:14 Some sections of a key highway between the Pacific coast and the rest of Western Canada

00:18 were partially closed on Saturday.

00:20 Well, the smoke has been insane.

00:23 Residents accustomed to the fire season said this year was unlike any other.

00:27 He's sensitive about the smoke too.

00:30 This year is maybe a little scarier than most.

00:34 A little bit closer to home.

00:37 The blaze was centered around the city of Kelowna where fires moved so rapidly on Friday

00:42 that the number of people under evacuation order went from 4,500 to 15,000 in an hour.

00:49 The rapid spread of fires underscored the severity of Canada's worst wildfire season

00:54 on record.

00:55 It's completely off the charts this year.

00:57 On Friday, a spokesperson for the World Meteorological Organization said the heat and dry weather

01:03 this summer have contributed to unusually severe wildfires.

01:07 British Columbia, fires are raging there.

01:10 We've seen very, very high temperatures this week, including a temperature of 42.2 degrees

01:18 Celsius in the town of Lytton, which was a new August temperature record.

01:23 You don't normally, and you shouldn't normally associate 42.2 degrees Celsius with Canada,

01:29 but this is what we are seeing.

01:31 The northern Canadian city of Yellowknife had evacuated most of its roughly 20,000 residents

01:37 by Friday night due to a large approaching blaze.

01:41 Some homeowners used sprinklers and hoses to try to protect their properties from the

01:45 wildfires, but with strong winds expected, officials warned the fire could reach the

01:50 the outskirts of the city this weekend.

01:52 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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