©BCWildfireService

VERNON, British Columbia — A fast-moving wildfire destroyed about 230 homes in an Indigenous community in western Canada, officials said Tuesday, making it one of the country’s most destructive fires in recent years. Dan Wilson, chief of the Okanagan Indian Band, said the Bradley Creek wildfire devastated much of a reserve community near Vernon. “It was hard to recognize my community from the air with all the structures and the forest gone,” Wilson said after surveying the area by helicopter. The destruction ranks among Canada’s worst recent wildfires. A 2024 blaze in Jasper, Alberta, destroyed about 350 homes, while the 2023 McDougall Creek wildfire, also in British Columbia’s Okanagan region, destroyed about 200 homes. Canada has endured increasingly destructive wildfire seasons in recent years, with smoke from the blazes repeatedly spreading across North America and triggering widespread air-quality alerts.