©BCWildfireService

PENTICTON, British Columbia — A wildfire that forced more than 20,000 people from their homes in western Canada moved so quickly that crews had to abandon firefighting to help residents escape, a pace British Columbia’s premier said Wednesday may represent a “new normal.” The Bald Range wildfire erupted Friday near Summerland, a community of about 12,000 in British Columbia’s Okanagan region. By Wednesday, it had grown to about 184 square kilometers (71 square miles) after destroying homes and killing an 80-year-old woman. “There’s an important set of lessons for us to take about how quickly this moved and that this may be our new normal for fire speed,” Premier David Eby said. He said the blaze outpaced wildfire modeling and left some residents with little time to evacuate. Officials have begun damage assessments, but the area remained unsafe Wednesday and there was no timeline for residents to return.