©BCWildfireService

Recent days have seen B.C.’s wilderness struck by lightning almost 34,000 times, fire crews report, and the hot, dry conditions are expected to linger. The B.C. Wildfire Service notes almost 100 fires burning, as of Monday afternoon. At the same time, several parts of the province are under a heat warning until Thursday: the Okanagan Valley, the Fraser Canyon, South Thompson, Shuswap, West Kootenay, Kitimat Terrace and the Sunshine Coast. …Sunday saw people living in the East Kootenay city of Kimberley placed under an evacuation alert and the situation remains uncertain in eastern British Columbia. …In the Thompson Nicola Regional District, the Fiftynine Creek and French Bar Creek fires are over 130 and 100 square kilometres in size, respectively, according to the wildfire service. …Prof. Lori Daniels, Koerner Chair in Wildfire Coexistence at the University of British Columbia, noted Canada’s 2026 fire season is within the 30-year average but there are still two months to go.