Thursday, March 28, 2024

Province extends state of emergency induced by wildfires

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The British Columbia government has officially extended the province’s state of emergency by two more weeks.

The province first declared a state of emergency on August 15th, which was initially supposed to be in effect for two weeks.

After evaluation by Emergency Management BC, it has been extended to two more weeks and will last until September 12th with the possibility to be extended or rescinded as necessary.

As of Wednesday morning, there are 534 wildfires burning across British Columbia with 34 evacuation orders affecting approximately 3,200 people, plus 53 evacuation alerts impacting about 21,800 people.

This marks the second time in as many years that B.C. has declared a state of emergency due to wildfires. In 2017, the declaration lasted 10 weeks from July 7 to Sept. 15.

The state of emergency gives agencies, such as Emergency Management BC, the fire commissioner, the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, and the RCMP, the authority to take every action necessary to fight the wildfires and protect residents and their communities.

Vancouver Island currently has five major wildfires burning, and smoke advisories have been lifted for most of the island.

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Brishti Basu
Former Senior Staff Writer and Content Manager at Victoria Buzz.

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