A challenging fire season is predicted by hundreds of wildfires that started earlier than usual, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes in western Canada on Sunday.
One region under fire threat was the small settlement of Fort Nelson in the British Columbian province.
“Fires are really all around us from the west to the northeast,” Mayor Rob Fraser told AFP as he urged hundreds of people who have stayed put to get out of the town.
A fire covering an area of 2,500 hectares (6,200 acres) was burning 3.5 kilometers (two miles) to the west of Fort Nelson. Nearly 3,500 were evacuated Friday evening.
Although the fire was retarded in its development by cooler temperatures overnight, Fraser noted that high winds later in the afternoon could rekindle the fire.
According to him, the town is experiencing the worst kind of drought, which makes it very challenging to contain flames. The drought is rated as the fifth most severe in the area.
People were being forced to be ready for potential evacuations as 43 fires, including one 15 kilometers from the town of Fort McMurray, were raging in the neighboring province of Alberta.
The village is situated in a forested location where tar sands are used to produce oil.
In 2016 it was hit by a fire that prompted the evacuation of 90,000 people, in a major catastrophe that saw 2,500 buildings destroyed and billions of dollars in damage.
Evacuation orders were also issued over the weekend in small towns in Alberta and Manitoba province, while smoke from wildfires drifted over much of western Canada, lowering air quality dramatically, the federal government said.
The ministry released an update last week stating that the likelihood and intensity of wildfires will rise in the coming months due to dry conditions and higher than average temperatures.
With flames consuming over 15 million hectares of land and spreading from coast to coast, last year was the worst forest fire season in Canadian history. 230,000 people were evacuated, and eight firefighters lost their lives.
