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The wildfire season in British Columbia has been transformed in a flash, with lightning strikes sending the tally of blazes burning in the province past 100.
On Wednesday morning the province’s firefighters faced only about 20 blazes in what had been a relatively quiet season so far, but as of Saturday morning there were about 113 fires burning, including about 100 started since Friday.
The B.C. Wildfire Service has attributed the vast majority of the new fires to the 4,000 lightning strikes it says hit the province that day. The eruption of fire activity has also seen an increase in evacuation orders and alerts.
Two-thirds of the fires are burning out of control and most new blazes, orders and alerts are concentrated in the southern Interior.
The Thompson-Nicola Regional District on Friday ordered the evacuation of 131 properties near Big Bar Lake and Meadow Lake due to the Fiftynine Creek fire, which has also prompted an evacuation alert for the nearby Bonaparte Plateau.
The Cariboo Regional District triggered an evacuation due to the Bowers Lake fire on Friday, as well as an alert for the Lessard Lake fire.
A wildfire — that doubled in size overnight — continues to burn near Pemberton as hundreds of residents remain on evacuation alert. The B.C. Wildfire Service says dry conditions and severe lightning have sparked more fires, with the number of active wildfires in the province now close to 100.
Earlier this week, fire officials warned of a weather system bringing lightning and ideal conditions for both starting and spreading significant fires on B.C.’s parched landscape.
The Fiftynine Creek fire, for example, was only detected on Friday, but by that evening had already grown to about 40 square kilometres.
An update from the wildfire service on Friday said that as the weather system moved into Alberta, officials anticipated more lightning strikes “and, in the coming days, more fire starts.”
More than 500 firefighters have been called in to fight fires across the province.
