B.C. prepares for another day of wildfire alerts and anxiousness | CBC News

“It’s continuing to be very dry, very hot, and we are seeing that wind come through, which can make firefighting a challenge.” 

As of Friday morning, the B.C. Wildfire Centre said there were nine wildfires of note in the province, with a combined size of more than 60,000 hectares. They all started in the past few days as record-breaking temperatures and subsequent thunderstorms rolled across the province. 

There are fires near Lillooet, 100 Mile House, Buckinghorse River and several small communities in the Cariboo, but the closest to a major city was near Castlegar, home to around 8,000 people. 

“You just never know with the heat we’ve had, the extreme heat, it’s almost inevitable that something’s going to happen,” said Sue Heaton-Sherstobitoff, a Castlegar city councillor who spent much of Thursday helping remove around 50 residents of a care facility that was under an evacuation order. 

She said the disaster in Lytton, where a majority of the small town was destroyed in a fire Wednesday, was making people more proactive than before.  

“Be prepared, you never know if it’s going to happen it to you,” she said.

“Think about all those personal papers you need … and just have a plan.”

WATCH | Lytton, B.C., destroyed by wildfire:

In Lytton, B.C., a heat dome fuelled by climate change has created scorching temperatures, stoking fires that have destroyed the town. More than 1,000 people have evacuated, and it’s not yet known whether anyone has died. 5:48