The B.C. government has placed the province under a state of emergency in response to worsening wildfire conditions.
The decision was announced on Friday evening by Premier David Eby and Bowinn Ma, Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness.
“In just the last 24-hours, the situation has deteriorated quite rapidly,” said Eby.
As of Friday, 380 wildfires are burning across the province, 65 of which are burning in the Southeast region.
“Given these fast-moving conditions, the Province of British Columbia is declaring a provincial state of emergency, under the authority of the Emergency Program Act, to ensure we are in a position to rapidly access any tools we need to support communities as the situation evolves,” said a joint statement from Eby and Ma.
The B.C. government has asked people to refrain from travel, if possible.
“At this time, we’re grateful that people are mostly following our call to not travel to certain areas and to stay out of the way of emergency crews so they can do their jobs,” said Eby and Ma. “We are also seeing more and more people evacuated – and access to accommodation is becoming increasingly tight in the Interior.”
The state of emergency allows the B.C. government to enact emergency orders if needed.
“Emergency orders could include travel restrictions to specific areas if people do not respect our calls to avoid non-essential travel to the central Interior and southeastern B.C.,” said Ma and Eby. “We’re calling on all British Columbians to be alert, listen to local officials and follow evacuation orders. We will get through this together.”
