Number of B.C. evacuation orders and wildfires tick down

VICTORIA — The number of properties under evacuation orders and alerts because of wildfires in British Columbia ticked down over the weekend.

Emergency Management BC says 28 orders were in place today, covering more than 3,900 properties, while residents of another 6,255 properties were told to be ready to leave on short notice.

That’s down from 4,100 properties on evacuation orders and 6,731 on evacuation alerts on Sunday as firefighting crews across the province were aided by cooler weather.

The number of active wildfires was down by one to 232, including 17 fires that were either highly visible or posed a potential threat to public safety.

The BC Wildfire Service says conditions were expected to be favourable today for a large-scale planned ignition at the northeast corner of the large and destructive White Rock Lake fire, which continued to burn out of control west of Okanagan Lake.

An update posted to the service’s website says the burn would be low intensity and a buffer that’s free of natural fuels has been constructed around the roughly 30-kilometre square area.

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