Almost 3,500 people have already been evacuated from Fort Nelson on Friday. Mayor R. Faser called on the rest of the people to leave the city on Sunday.
In the neighboring province of Alberta, 44 forest fires were burning on Sunday. Fort McMurray is preparing for a possible evacuation due to a fire burning 15 km away. Eight years ago, during a forest fire, 2,500 houses burned down in the city, and 90,000 residents had to evacuate.
Weekend evacuation orders have also been issued for a string of towns in Alberta and Manitoba. Smoke from the fires spread across much of western Canada. In some big cities, the air quality was very bad as a result.
Wildfires have started earlier this year than usual, raising fears of a difficult fire season. Already last week, the government warned that the risk of wildfires would increase in the coming months due to the ongoing drought and unusually high temperatures.
Last year’s wildfire season in Canada was the worst on record. Burned more than 15 million hectare area, eight firefighters died, 230,000 people were evacuated.
