For days the Canadian town of Lytton made headlines with ever new heat records - now an inferno of flames has almost completely destroyed the community: The small town was overrun by a roller of fire in a very short time.

Canadian MP Brad Vis announced on Thursday that 90 percent of Lytton had burned down, including the whole town center.

More than 1000 people had to flee in a hurry.

He saw white smoke on the southern edge of the town and 15 to 20 minutes later the flames had hit the whole city, said Mayor Jan Polderman, according to Canadian media. Photos and videos showed completely charred rows of houses and streets. There were initially no official figures on possible victims. Power and telephone connections were interrupted in many places. People had fled in all directions to more distant places, it said.

Before the fire disaster on Wednesday evening (local time), Lytton, which is around 260 kilometers northeast of Vancouver, had recorded heat records for three days in a row.

According to the weather agency, the thermometer showed 49.6 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, the highest temperature recorded in Canada.

The fire on an area of ​​65 square kilometers was "out of control", said the authorities on Thursday.

The weather is still dry, hot and windy.

62 new fires in 24 hours

Several forest fires have broken out in both Canada and the United States because of the heat.

According to the authorities, around a thousand people have already had to leave their homes in western Canada because of the fire.

So far, however, there have apparently not been any deaths or injuries.

In the Canadian province of British Columbia alone, 62 new fires were discovered within 24 hours, as provincial government leader John Horgan said.

Almost everywhere in British Columbia there is the very highest risk of forest fires.

Several fires also blazed north of the town of Kamloops, which is about 150 kilometers northeast of Lytton.

The heat warning has now been extended to the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, parts of the Northwest Territories and northern Ontario.

The US states of Washington and Oregon are also groaning from the heat wave.

Thousands are forced to leave their homes in California

Hot and dry weather with violent winds aggravated the fire situation in California as well.

In the north of the most populous US state, over a thousand firefighters fought three major forest fires on Thursday.

One of the fires near the village of Weed has spread to over 80 square kilometers.

Several thousand people had been asked to leave their homes in the danger zone.

Despite a large-scale operation by the fire brigade lasting several days, the flames were only 25 percent contained on Thursday.

In 2020, California experienced the most devastating forest fire season in terms of area since records began.

The fires raged particularly hard from mid-August to the end of October.

More than 30 people were killed and over 10,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed.