Some wildfire evacuees near British Columbia’s Slocan Lake are able to return home after the Regional District of Central Kootenay rescinded an evacuation order for an area south of Lemon Creek.
An evacuation alert remains in place for 65 addresses and 20 parcels of land near the Ponderosa FSR wildfire, which is burning around 150 kilometres east of Kelowna, B.C.
Evacuation orders still apply for more than 400 properties to the north, including the Village of Slocan, as the Slocan Lake wildfire complex continues to burn.
There are almost 360 wildfires burning across the province as of Thursday morning, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS), up from about 330 last week. The majority of active wildfires were caused by lightning.
Crews put out more than 200 wildfires in the past week, according to the BCWS, which says there are more than 1,400 personnel, nearly 200 aircraft and more than 200 “structure protection” vehicles like fire trucks currently tackling blazes across B.C.
This year is already the fourth-most destructive wildfire season on record, according to BCWS data, with more than 9,100 square kilometres of land having been burned so far. The 2023 fire season was considered the most destructive ever recorded by area burned, at 28,400 square kilometres.
Other orders downgraded
Several other evacuation orders were downgraded earlier this week.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Penticton Indian Band downgraded an order to an evacuation alert after the BCWS designated the Lower Blue Mountain wildfire as under control, meaning it’s not likely to spread.
An evacuation order due to the Argenta Creek wildfire at the north end of Kootenay Lake was also downgraded on Tuesday afternoon.
Prime conditions for wildfires
In an update posted Thursday, the BCWS said it expects hot and dry conditions to persist across most of B.C. into the weekend. It adds most of the province will continue to see a significant chance of thunderstorm activity with little rainfall to dampen fires.
“This weather will make conditions highly susceptible to new starts and will likely intensify fire behaviour at existing incidents,” it said.
Lightning strikes in the past week may have started small fires, which may grow as humidity drops, it added.
According to Natural Resources Canada, human-driven climate change means hot and dry weather will happen more often, drying out plant matter that fuels fires, and creating the conditions in which they thrive.