Heatwave and fires in Canada: the village of Lytton burned down, a thousand evacuations
The burning streets of Lytton, Western Canada, June 30, 2021. via REUTES - 2 RIVERS REMIX SOCIETY
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About a thousand people were evacuated Wednesday evening, July 30 in British Columbia, in western Canada, due to fires added to the unprecedented heat wave.
This was announced Thursday at the end of the day by the authorities of the province.
The village of Lytton, where the temperature had risen to 49.6 degrees, was almost completely burned down.
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British Columbia has recorded 62 new fires in the past 24 hours, Premier John Horgan told a press briefing.
“
The risk of fire is currently extreme in almost all parts of British Columbia and I urge British Columbians to listen carefully to authorities and follow directions,
” he said. John Horgan said he requested reinforcements from Justin Trudeau's federal government.
Provincial authorities have not yet announced any injuries or deaths related to these fires, which were identified in particular north of the city of Kamloops, located 350 km northeast of Vancouver.
At around 5 p.m., the British Columbia Fire Department said it was expecting "
another very difficult day with wildfires
", due to "
unprecedented hot and dry conditions in recent years. days
”.
► To read also
: A "heat dome" causes record temperatures in western North America
"
Our poor little town of Lytton is gone
"
The Canadian village of Lytton, some 250 km northeast of Vancouver, which this week recorded a national heat record of 49.6 ° Celsius, has been almost completely destroyed.
The 250 residents were evacuated Wednesday evening due to a fire that spread very quickly.
The evacuation order was then extended, overnight Wednesday to Thursday, to residents of a hundred properties north of Lytton.
“
Our poor little town of Lytton is gone,
” Edith Loring-Kuhanga, administrator of Stein Valley Nlakapamux School, wrote on Facebook.
“
We loaded everyone into our vehicles and started driving… We had no electricity, no internet in Lytton and everyone was trying to reach people
,” she wrote.
It's so devastating - we're all in shock!
The members of our community have lost everything.
"
As the unprecedented heat has subsided slightly, residents of Canada's western provinces are now facing the grim effects of scorching temperatures, including an increase in the number of heat-related deaths,
the Guardian
reports
.
On Thursday, this heat wave continued to move eastward, in the grasslands in the center of the country.
Apart from British Columbia, heatwave warnings have been issued for the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, as well as part of the Northwest Territories, and now northern Ontario.
In addition to western Canada, the US states of Washington and Oregon, across the border, also suffocated this week in record temperatures.
(And with
AFP)
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