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Canada hopes for break in forest fires
Vancouver, Canada (AFP) Aug 5, 2009 With thousands of evacuees still stranded, emergency officials were hoping Wednesday for cooler temperatures to help firefighters tame wildfires raging through Canada's westernmost province. The fires were set off during a recent heat wave, but weather forecasters called for normal temperatures of between 25 and 30 degrees Centigrade (77 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit) in the hard-hit west and interior. Light showers were expected Wednesday and Thursday, followed by a return to dry sunny weather on the weekend. An uncontrolled fire less than one kilometer above continued to lick at the town of Lillooet Wednesday, but firefighters had successfully created a break between buildings and the blaze overnight, provincial fire official Alyson Couch told AFP. Lillooet, 213 kilometres (132 miles) northeast of Vancouver, is home to nearly half of the 5,000 people currently on evacuation from fires throughout British Columbia. Another 2,500 people remained out of their homes in the Central Okanagan wine-growing and tourist area, 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Vancouver. The Okanagan fire remained the site of the most concentrated battle Wednesday, with about 264 ground firefighters, 16 helicopters and 83 heavy equipment operators battling the blaze, which was only 30 percent controlled, said a forestry service bulletin. The good news, said Couch, is that no human injuries or deaths had yet been reported, and only three homes have been burned, all in the Okanagan. "And over the last 24 hours we have seen a bit of quieter behaviour" throughout British Columbia, said Couch. "Typically we've been seeing 100 new fire starts each day, but (Tuesday) we had only 50." Some 850 firefighters from elsewhere in Canada have arrived in the past week to aid several thousand British Columbia firefighters. Couch said 30 senior fire management officials from New Zealand and Australia will arrive to help Thursday. "We can call on the (Canadian) military if we need to, but that is as a last resort," said Couch. Of the 800 fires burning in British Columbia on Wednesday, the forestry service ranked 125 as serious, because they threaten communities or are large in size. Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links Forest and Wild Fires - News, Science and Technology
Thousands flee fires threatening western CanadaVancouver (AFP) Aug 3, 2009 More evacuations were ordered Monday in western Canada, where thousands of people have fled forest fires threatening several small towns and aboriginal communities. By late Monday some 5,000 people had been evacuated in the west and southern Interior regions of British Columbia, and emergency officials issued new orders to leave. Fire conditions are ranked high to extreme in most of the ... read more |
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