TORONTO – Not a day goes by, in this Canadian Summer, without one or more fire-related emergencies across the country: today it was the turn of the city of Kelowna in British Columbia and a community in northern Manitoba, forced to evacuate due to the risk caused by the threatening approach of forest fires. 

The latter is the city of Leaf Rapids, whose administrators announced the evacuation order on social networks, inviting all residents (351 according to the 2021 census) to leave the area by 10 a.m. on tomorrow, Tuesday, July 8. The meeting point for everyone will be at the Fileds Store parking lot at 9 a.m. tomorrow: then, buses will transfer the evacuees to the Winnipeg reception centre, at 770 Leila Avenue, which will be open for those who have nowhere to go. The post published on social networks recalls that the Province is working to guarantee hotel places for the displaced, reminding them that they will have to bring with them money, identity documents, medicines and clothes, and to turn off the ovens, water and lights of their homes before leaving them.

Today is also a difficult day for the residents of Kelowna, British Columbia, where firefighting crews in the area also had to close the airspace due to the Whelan Creek fire: the fire broke out on a hill behind the airport and the flames spread quickly, coming dangerously close to homes. The B.C. Fire Service closed the airspace for several hours, delaying or canceling several flights at Kelowna International Airport; 7 properties on Rockface Road and Dead Pine Drive were evacuated overnight Sunday and 106 others were put on alert; by this morning, 4.3 hectares of woods had already gone up in smoke. The fire, like many others recorded in recent weeks, has been classified as “human-caused”, although it is unclear whether it was started accidentally or intentionally.

The situation continues to be an emergency in almost all of Canada. According to data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) – updated in real time, here: we report the ones displayed as we write – there are 503 fires active throughout the country (including all of them, from those out of control to those under observation) distributed as follows: Yukon 93, British Columbia 82, Manitoba 81, Northwest Territories 75, Saskatchewan 67, Ontario 50, Alberta 42, Newfoundland and Labrador 4, New Brunswick 1 and Quebec 1. No fires, at the moment, in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, while 7 fires are located in the areas of Parcs Canada.

In the pic above, a wildfire in Canada (photo from Twitter X – @StatCan_eng)