Comments | British Columbia, July 28 to September 8, 2010. Due to little precipitation and lightning strikes, from July 28 to July 31, the number of fires in British Columbia went from 600 to 1,100. On August 18, strong winds blew through the interior causing substantial growth of the fires. Throughout the wildfire season, approximately 461 homes (1,383 individuals) were ordered to evacuate the region and hundreds of other homes were put on evacuation alert. The hardest hit areas were Chilcotin, Houston, Williams Lake, Burns Lake and Fraser Lake. All evacuation orders and alerts were removed by the first week of September. Approximately 330,000 hectares burned due to 1,673 fires. Over 1,400 personnel from out-of-province assisted with fighting the fires. Two air tanker pilots died in a plane crash while fighting the fires. Both the city of Vancouver and the Government of Alberta issued air quality warnings due to smoke caused by the fires. |