Homes in the Wilden neighbourhood are vacant with many residents who have chosen to leave under the evacuation alert issued for the area as the McDougall Creek fire continues to burn in Kelowna, British Columbia, on August 19, 2023. (Photo by Paige Taylor White / AFP)
Around 30,000 people were under orders Saturday to evacuate their homes in western Canada’s British Columbia, provincial officials said, as a raging wildfire bore down on the city of Kelowna.
“The situation is highly dynamic and the numbers are changing all the time, but as of now we are currently hovering at about 30,000 people on evacuation order and an additional 36,000 people on evacuation alert,” said Bowinn Ma, British Columbia’s minister of emergency management and climate readiness.
Kelowna, a city of 150,000, was choked with thick smoke as it became the latest population center hit in a summer of…
