Summary:
- Evacuation orders increase as wildfires continue across western Canada.
- State of emergency declared in Kelowna, British Columbia.
- Yellowknife residents scramble to evacuate amid wildfire threat.
- Changing winds could push the Yellowknife blaze to outskirts.
- Massive evacuation efforts underway with over 20 flights scheduled.
- Climate change worsens wildfire problem, exacerbating conditions.
More evacuation orders forced residents to flee for safety as wildfires continued to sweep across western Canada. A state of emergency was declared early Friday in Kelowna, a city in British Columbia with a population of about 150,000. As the Pacific province warns the next 24 to 48 hours could be the most difficult. Meanwhile, residents from the remote northern city of Yellowknife scrambled to get out of town before flames blocked their exit. We moved up to Yellowknife in 1976. We've never ever seen a wildfire season like this. Nobody envisioned an event of this scale and it was just, and it's still really stressful.
There's a lot of people left in Yellowknife that are freaking out. Officials said the massive blaze threatening Yellowknife, the Northwest Territories' capital city, made little progress on Thursday, but changing winds meant it could reach the outskirts by the weekend. The city of around 20,000 were given a deadline of noon local time Friday to evacuate, with some 10 evacuation planes carrying out about 1,500 people on Thursday, and over 20 more flights due out on Friday. The expanse of fire risk and disruption to life and land underscores the severity of this year's worst on-record Canadian wildfire season, with more than 1,000 active fires burning across the country. Experts say climate change has exacerbated the wildfire problem, with officials adding that drought and high temperatures have been a contributing factor to the number and intensity of this year's fires.