142 Fires Start in B.C. on Friday, 7000 People Evacuated | State of Emergency Declared by B.C. Gov’t

British Columbia (B.C.), Canada has declared a state of emergency due to 182 wildfires currently burning in the province.  This state of emergency gives the government special authority to respond to the fires.  A state of emergency like this hasn’t happened since 2003, when 2,500 fires broke out, according to the CBC.

“It was awful, it was horrible. If I stood on the roof of my house, I could’ve touched the bombers going over.” – Evacuee Judy Genest told CBC News on Saturday

142 new fires broke out in British Columbia (B.C.), Canada on Friday, July 7th, 2017.  As of noon today, there were 182 wildfires burning in B.C.

video of a B.C. fire burning right now

7,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in B.C.

About 2,000 B.C. firefighters are fighting wildfires across the province right now.  Hundreds more from other provinces will be joining them this weekend.

According to Kevin Skrepnek, information officer with the B.C. Wildfire Service, the majority of these fires were caused by lightning but some were human-caused fires.

“It’s not unprecedented to have that number of fires in a day, but certainly the level of consequence, the size of the fires, the aggressiveness of which they’re burning — all of that is posing a significant challenge.

We expect this level of activity will continue for the next five to seven days.  We’re looking at challenging days ahead.” – Kevin Skrepnek, information officer with the B.C. Wildfire Service told the CBC