{"id":810022,"date":"2026-07-18T12:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T12:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/810022\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T12:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T12:04:11","slug":"evacuation-orders-continue-as-b-c-wildfires-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/810022\/","title":{"rendered":"Evacuation orders continue as B.C. wildfires surge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A helicopter drops water on the Brunswick Complex wildfires near North Bend, B.C., July 11. There are about 70 active wildfires burning in the province as of Friday. HO-BC Wildfire Service\/REUTERSBC Wildfire Service\/Reuters<\/p>\n

At least four homes were destroyed by an out-of-control wildfire north of Boston Bar, B.C., and hundreds of other homes remain under evacuation orders and alerts in the province as the number of wildfires<\/a> have more than doubled in just a day. <\/p>\n

The BC Wildfire Service said Friday that there are about 70 active wildfires burning, up from around 30 a day earlier, with dozens of new blazes started in the past 24 hours.<\/p>\n

Together known as the Brunswick complex, the two fires near Boston Bar have grown to more than 200 square kilometres in size. Besides the four homes or cabins, three other structures have been lost, said Patricia Ross, chair of the board of directors for the Fraser Valley Regional District, which includes Boston Bar. <\/p>\n

Jagdip Singh Bihal has chosen to remain behind in the community to run his business, JB\u2019s Drive-In Restaurant. He\u2019s been providing coffee, water and food for police and firefighters, with whom he said he\u2019s in regular communication.<\/p>\n

Mr. Bihal said he could see several helicopters dumping water on flames visible on the mountain slope just across the Fraser River from his restaurant. Crews had installed sprinklers around the business and his home, he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re going to wait and watch,\u201d he said, noting that he would leave with his son and several employees if the situation got worse.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been scary at times, he said, but he\u2019s comforted by the firefighters in the community. <\/p>\n

About 170 residents were ordered out of their homes on Thursday evening, but Gordon Robinson, a fire information officer assigned to the Brunswick complex, said conditions are now slightly cooler and more humid, allowing crews to restart their direct attack. <\/p>\n

Premier David Eby said at a news conference Friday in advance of the summer meeting of Canada\u2019s premiers next week that British Columbia\u2019s fire season has been calm relative to Ontario\u2019s. <\/p>\n

Nearly 200 fires are blazing in that province, with 80 out of control. Residents of northern Indigenous communities have been evacuated to places throughout Ontario, including Thunder Bay and Toronto. <\/p>\n

Smoke from those fires has blanketed the populous U.S.-Canada corridor that includes Toronto and New York, with some U.S. politicians \u2013 including President Donald Trump \u2013 excoriating Canada\u2019s wildfire management. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Ontario is experiencing, what Eastern Canada is experiencing, British Columbia went through about five years ago. We were the canary in the coal mine in terms of forest-fire impacts in Canada,\u201d Mr. Eby said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

He said that when the premiers meet, he will be advocating for a \u201cnational mutual-support strategy\u201d and federal government co-operation on urgent wildfire responses. <\/p>\n

Rainfall Thursday has provided some relief, combined with the continuing efforts of firefighters, said Roland Schigas, program manager for Bluesky Canada, which produces smoke and wildfire forecasts through the University of British Columbia\u2019s weather forecast research department. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Fraser Canyon, people are quite stressed out,\u201d he said. \u201cHaving to live with the potential for uprooting your whole life for an unspecified period of time due to a wildfire is very stressful.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Pemberton, located about 30 kilometres north of Whistler, remained under evacuation orders and alerts, with crews working relentlessly to combat a fire burning<\/a> within a few kilometres of the community.<\/p>\n

David MacKenzie, who owns the Pemberton Valley Lodge, said his business was on track to have the busiest July in more than 22 years of operation. But the lodge is now under an evacuation alert, and he\u2019s cancelled guests\u2019 reservations for the coming weeks, at his own expense.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be at the height of our tourism season,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Andrea Flores, who runs a photography business in Pemberton, said she could see the out-of-control Signal Hill wildfire from her kitchen window Thursday. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was surreal. I couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d she said about being that close to the blaze.<\/p>\n

Although just outside of the evacuation zone, Ms. Flores and her family briefly left town that evening, but returned as rain reduced the severity of the situation. <\/p>\n

With reports from The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A helicopter drops water on the Brunswick Complex wildfires near North Bend, B.C.,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,43,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,41,39,42,40,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-810022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}