Wildfire forces 7,500 from homes

Wildfires have driven nearly 7,500 people from their homes and burned dozens of houses in the British Colombia town of Barriere, emergency officials said.

At least 60 homes and a sawmill were destroyed on Friday in the town, about 30 miles north of Kamloops, said spokesman Bob Buglsag.

The British Columbia government declared a state of emergency in the affected area.

Residents were shepherded to Kamloops, along with people from neighbouring McLure and its surrounding area, where the estimated 16 square mile fire broke out Wednesday.

About 7,500 people had been forced from their homes by Friday night, said Cathy Piazza, chief information officer.

Residents fled as a new fire jumped a road and inched perilously close to the Kamloops suburb of Rayleigh. Several hundred residents had to be ferried across the North Thompson River by Department of Fisheries and Oceans boats.

Premier Gordon Campbell said the state of emergency was aimed at helping crews fighting fires in McLure and surrounding areas, and to ensure a co-ordinated response to evacuating residents threatened by the expanding wildfires.

“This is the worst situation we’ve had and the driest circumstances that we’ve measured in the last 50 years,” said Campbell. “In all likelihood British Columbians have never lived through a drier forest situation than we are living through this summer.”

The fire apparently was started Wednesday by a discarded cigarette, fire information officer Kevin Matuga said. Fanned by high winds, it exploded Thursday night.

The blaze was too hot for firefighters to approach, especially “with the kind of volatile situation we’re seeing right now, the ever-changing and shifting winds,” Matuga said.

Campbell said he was ready for the evacuation.

“I got my razor and my toothbrush and that’s all I’m taking. I travel light,” he said. “Oh and my cigarettes too.”