‘Trees going up like Roman candles’ as fire season starts early in B.C., Alberta

The Canadian Press in the Victoria Times Colonist
April 22, 2024
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada, Canada West

CARIBOO, B.C. — Susanne Langan first noticed the Burgess Creek wildfire from her home in British Columbia’s Cariboo region on Saturday afternoon as a distant, thin column of smoke. But as winds picked up that night, the flames became more aggressive. “I could see lots of trees going up like Roman candles,” said Langan, who works as an equipment operator at Mount Polley Mine, about 50 kilometres north of Williams Lake. …In addition to the 1,600-hectare Burgess Creek fire about 600 kilometres north of Vancouver, the tiny town of Endako, a further 400 kilometres northwest, is also under an evacuation alert, threatened by a blaze that the BC Wildfire Service said on Sunday was less than a kilometre west of the town. …an evacuation alert for Endako was issued Sunday after 60 km/h winds began pushing the flames toward the community of a few dozen homes that sit on the north side of Highway 16.

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