fun stuff
Huge B.C. fires prompt state of emergency
B.C.'s premier calls the situation in the province the worst in the last 50 years.
KAMLOOPS, B.C. -- Just hours after a massive wildfire forced the B.C. government to declare a state of emergency yesterday in the Thompson-Nicola regional district, a new blaze erupted on a mountain visible from downtown Kamloops. People living in several residential areas just kilometres from Kamloops, including the suburb of Rayleigh, were told to evacuate to an emergency centre set up in Kamloops.
"Most people in Kamloops can see this fire," said Glen Plummer, a spokesperson for the provincial emergency program.
Plummer couldn't say how many people were impacted by the latest evacuation notice.
Approximately 3,500 people living in the surrounding area had already fled to Kamloops from their homes by a massive fire that began in the McLure area, about 40 kilometres north of Kamloops, on Wednesday and rapidly spread north to neighbouring Barriere.
That blaze was estimated to be 40 square kilometres early yesterday.
Premier Gordon Campbell said the state of emergency was aimed at helping crews fighting fires in McLure, Barriere and surrounding areas, and to ensure a co-ordinated response to evacuating residents threatened by the expanding wildfire.
"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."
Firefighters had to be pulled back from the Barriere-McLure blaze due to the erratic and volatile nature of the inferno, said Campbell.
Communities emptied by the McLure-Barrier fire also included Louis Creek and the nearby Chinook Cove area, including the Little Fort, Chu Chua and Dunn Lake Road areas.
The McLure-Barriere fire is one of 328 active fires in British Columbia. It's believed 171 of them were caused by people and the rest by lightning.
Forty-four new fires had started since midnight, according to the B.C. Forest Service.
A total of 280 square kilometres have been burned by major blazes so far and the effort to combat them involves about 1,800 firefighters.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFre ... 51663.html
i hope so too
but, man...in barriere, one of the worst hit places, the tolko mill was destroyed, which is what the town was surviving on, was destroyed..they're screwed.. 
they are trying desperatly to save it, i really hope they do. it will not be good if it gets any closer to kamloops, there simply is no place for that many people to go...
