BC wildfire season intensifies as smoke blankets Vancouver

As British Columbia battles a severe wildfire season, authorities reported that 18 tickets were issued over the past weekend for illegal fires in areas under total fire bans, even as thousands of residents were forced to flee and hundreds of homes were destroyed. The fines were handed out by conservation officers patrolling the Clinton, 70 Mile House, Okanagan Lake, and Boston Bar areas, all threatened by major out-of-control blazes.

The impact of the fires continues to mount. Along the shores of Okanagan Lake, evacuation orders expanded on Thursday, August 6, applying to two dozen more properties on Westside Road. This brings the total number of people displaced by the Quilpituk Creek fire to more than 2,600. The most significant destruction occurred the previous weekend when the Bradley Creek blaze, which remains out of control, destroyed approximately 230 homes on Okanagan Indian Band reserve lands near Vernon. Band officials reported that about 30 of those homes belonged to band members, with the rest being non-band homes. Separately, in the Clinton area, structures have been destroyed on about 120 properties due to the massive Pear Lake fire, which forced evacuations...