Wildfires continue to spread across Canada
Wildfires on Friday bore down on Kelowna in western Canada – a city of 150,000 – while efforts to clear Yellowknife in the far north turned it into a ghost town as scorching flames burned ever closer. The two fronts in British Columbia and the Northwest Territories are just the latest in a summer of devastating wildfires across the country that have forced tens of thousands from their homes and left millions of acres scorched. In Kelowna, officials described "a hard night" beating back flames, at times forcing crews to pull back and some firefighters to become trapped behind lines while making "heroic efforts" to rescue residents. "We fought hard last night to protect our community," West Kelowna fire chief Jason Brolund told a briefing on Friday. "A significant number of structures were lost," he said, but no injuries or fatalities were reported. "It was like 100 years of firefighting all at once, in one night," he said, adding that he expects "another scary night tonight" under an eerie glow of the fires. Nearly 2,500 homes and businesses on Kelowna's west side were ordered evacuated late Thursday, while another 4,800 were advised to be ready to leave at a moment's notice. The city is nestled in the Okanagan Valley that is home to some of the country's top wineries. The emptying of Yellowknife continued in the far north, meanwhile, with cars snaking along the lone highway connecting the remote capital of the Northwest Territories to southern Alberta province ahead of a 12pm deadline. The exodus has also continued by air, with thousands of residents flying out and an increased number of flights scheduled Friday to evacuate the regional capital's more than 20,000 inhabitants. The nearest evacuation centre is 1,150 kilometres away, in Alberta, where several sites have been set up. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will meet with refugees in the provincial capital Edmonton in the afternoon. Air Canada pilot Chad Blewett, who flew one of the first relief flights out of Yellowknife, told public broadcaster CBC that the lakeside city was "pretty empty already." (AFP)