00:00 Thousands of residents in British Columbia were on a high evacuation alert on Saturday
00:07 after rapidly intensifying wildfires forced the Canadian province to declare a state of
00:12 emergency.
00:14 Some sections of a key highway between the Pacific coast and the rest of Western Canada
00:18 were partially closed on Saturday.
00:20 Well, the smoke has been insane.
00:23 Residents accustomed to the fire season said this year was unlike any other.
00:27 He's sensitive about the smoke too.
00:30 This year is maybe a little scarier than most.
00:34 A little bit closer to home.
00:37 The blaze was centered around the city of Kelowna where fires moved so rapidly on Friday
00:42 that the number of people under evacuation order went from 4,500 to 15,000 in an hour.
00:49 The rapid spread of fires underscored the severity of Canada's worst wildfire season
00:54 on record.
00:55 It's completely off the charts this year.
00:57 On Friday, a spokesperson for the World Meteorological Organization said the heat and dry weather
01:03 this summer have contributed to unusually severe wildfires.
01:07 British Columbia, fires are raging there.
01:10 We've seen very, very high temperatures this week, including a temperature of 42.2 degrees
01:18 Celsius in the town of Lytton, which was a new August temperature record.
01:23 You don't normally, and you shouldn't normally associate 42.2 degrees Celsius with Canada,
01:29 but this is what we are seeing.
01:31 The northern Canadian city of Yellowknife had evacuated most of its roughly 20,000 residents
01:37 by Friday night due to a large approaching blaze.
01:41 Some homeowners used sprinklers and hoses to try to protect their properties from the
01:45 wildfires, but with strong winds expected, officials warned the fire could reach the
01:50 the outskirts of the city this weekend.
01:52 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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