Sharjah 24 – AFP: Residents of western Canada scrambled to evacuate Saturday as raging wildfires encroached on two metropolitan areas -- separate blazes that have sent tens of thousands fleeing over the course of just days.
The devastating fires in British Columbia and the Northwest Territories are just the latest in a summer of dramatic wildfires across the country that have left millions of acres scorched.
According to estimates, 19,000 people were evacuated from Yellowknife, the Northwest Territories' capital, over 48 hours, its environment minister Shane Thompson said late Friday.
The city, home to some 20,000, was largely a ghost town following the largest ever evacuation from the region.
More than 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) south in British Columbia, fire also bore down on Kelowna, a city of 150,000 people in the Okanagan Valley.
Blazes have already destroyed several properties in West Kelowna, separated by Okanagan Lake from its larger, eponymous neighbor.
Among them is the Lake Okanagan Resort, according to local media, which is known for having hosted high-profile politicians such as British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
Overall, the number of people under evacuation order in British Columbia was 15,000, Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma said, according to Canadian media.
Thousands in the area were ordered evacuated or told late Thursday to be ready to leave at a moment's notice, while those on the University of British Columbia's Okanagan campus were ordered Friday to leave "immediately."
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