BC’s wildfire season this year is set to be the province’s second biggest based on the amount of land affected by the blaze.
CBC News reported that as of April 1, over 945,000 hectares of land in BC have been burned this season. In comparison, last year’s season clocks in as the record holder for land burned, at 1.2 million hectares.
More than 550 fires continue to burn across the province, as of Friday last week. Of that number, 60 of the blazes have been considered “fires of note” – which means they threaten people and/or property and are highly visible. A majority of these fires have been reported in BC’s southeast, northwest, and the Interior regions.
As of last Thursday, the fires forced some 5,000 people to evacuate their homes, while another 22,000 are under evacuation alerts.
In terms of buildings lost, this year’s wildfire season was significantly less destructive. At least half a dozen buildings were purportedly lost to fire, compared to last summer when at least 200 buildings were reported damaged or destroyed in the Cariboo district and another 215 in the Thompson-Nicola district.
The Shovel Lake fire currently raging between the Burns Lake and Prince George areas remains BC’s largest wildfire, affecting over 91,000 hectares.
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