
Cooler conditions forecast for much of B.C., expected to aid in fire fight
British Columbia's wildfire service says cool conditions and thunderstorms are in the forecast for much of the province as nearly 90 wildfires actively burn.
Its latest situational report says thunderstorm activity is expected across the province, bringing a low to moderate chance of lightning provincewide.
The BC Wildfire Service says nearly 75 per cent of the blazes burning in B.C. have been sparked by lightning.
It says the Fort Nelson area in the northeast is getting the most rain, which will help reduce the intensity of the fires there.
The service says north and central B.C. will see seasonal temperatures, and while there may be a slight drop in temperature in the south, hot and dry conditions are expected to linger.
The forecast comes after an out-of-control wildfire near Lytton, B.C., is again threatening the community and set off evacuation orders and alerts about four years after a deadly fire ripped through the town.
The service says the Izman Creek fire burning north of Lytton was discovered on Canada Day and has grown to about 130 hectares in size.
The community is still in the process of rebuilding from the 2021 fire that killed two people and wiped out much of the village and part of the Lytton First Nation four years ago on Monday.
The service says about 36 per cent of the wildfires actively burning in the province are classified as out of control, 30 per cent are being held and 34 per cent are under control.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 3, 2025.
Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian Press
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Globe and Mail
30 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
Sparks from an RCMP vehicle mishap ignited fire threatening Lytton
An RCMP equipment failure is responsible for igniting a wildfire near Lytton, B.C., stirring painful memories for a community that is still rebuilding after being levelled by fire four years earlier. A Mountie who was in the area searching for a missing swimmer was towing a police boat along Highway 12 northeast of the village in B.C.'s Interior on Canada Day when a wheel ejected from the right side of the trailer, causing a fire in a grass-filled ditch, said B.C. RCMP spokesman Staff Sergeant Kris Clark. The officer pulled over and used a fire extinguisher on the flames but was unable to contain their spread. 'This is a tremendously unfortunate set of circumstances that demonstrates the need for extreme caution and fire awareness during our long wildfire season,' Staff Sgt. Clark said in an e-mail. The out-of-control blaze, now called the Izman Creek fire, had grown to 155 hectares by Thursday. The Thompson-Nicola Regional District, which encompasses Lytton, has issued an evacuation order for three properties and an evacuation alert for nine others. The village is about 250 kilometres northeast of Vancouver. The BC Wildfire Service has assigned three initial attack crews, one unit crew, three additional personnel and three helicopters to the blaze. A smaller fire closer to the village – the Nikaia Creek fire, discovered June 30 – was largely contained by community firefighters and members of the Lytton First Nation and is now considered under control, at 5.73 hectares. There were 86 wildfires burning across B.C. on Thursday, including seven considered out of control. Lytton Mayor Denise O'Connor said the timing of the fires is not lost on community members. Exactly four years earlier, Lytton shattered Canadian heat records for three consecutive days, reaching a blistering 49.6 C before a fast-moving fire swept through, razing the village and killing two residents. 'There are still so many people triggered by the smell of smoke and seeing flames,' Ms. O'Connor said in an interview on Thursday. 'Even four years later, it's still very, very real for people.' The rebuilding process has been halting. Only about 40 per cent of the village's 250 residents had insurance at the time of the 2021 fire, making rebuilding impossible for some. Many core businesses, such as the grocery store, pharmacy and bank, have yet to return. Debris removal, soil remediation, and costly and protracted archeological work posed further challenges. Experts estimate the Nlaka'pamux people first settled in the area, then called Kumsheen, more than 10,000 years ago, using it as an important meeting place between coastal and Interior bands. Built partly on an ancient archeological site and burial ground, the entire village is protected under B.C.'s Heritage Conservation Act. But Ms. O'Connor said the past year has seen considerable progress. Major water and sewer repairs are under way, the Public Works building now has a roof and doors and an architect has been contracted to design a new community hub. Construction should begin later this summer on a new village office. There are now 11 occupied homes, the mayor's included, while six more are in various stages of construction. 'It doesn't sound like many to somebody from the city, I suppose, but for us, it's a large number,' Ms. O'Connor said. Tricia Thorpe, an area director for Blue Sky Country in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, lost her home just outside of the village, along with a dog, in the 2021 fire. But she and her husband managed to rescue two other dogs, nine puppies, four alpacas and five sheep, and were quick to rebuild her home. Ms. Thorpe said while there has been much attention on the new fires because of the anniversary, the community has dealt with numerous encroaching fires every year. 'This is nothing unusual for our community,' she said. 'Natural disasters are not a one-off any more – they're consistent.' As electoral area director, Ms. Thorpe now advocates for more supports, and better communication, with provincial partners in efforts to mitigate the effects of natural disasters that have now become a common occurrence. She cited as examples the need to better maintain evacuation routes, which in rural communities are often single forest service roads, and to properly train and resource small community-based firefighting groups so they can put out small fires before they grow large – as volunteers did at the Nikaia Creek fire this week. 'The BC Wildfire Service do a great job, but it takes time to get resources to where they need to be,' Ms. Thorpe said in an interview on Thursday. 'I think we need to have these groups that are ready to go, because if they can knock a fire before it becomes these monsters that we're seeing, that's huge, and we can save a heck of a lot of money.' In a statement, the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness said that it offers jurisdictions funding for evacuation route planning through its Community Emergency Preparedness Fund. As well, when a jurisdiction includes a forest service road as part of its evacuation planning, this is communicated to the local Forest Service District office, which then works with the local government or regional district on mitigation plans as needed. On community involvement, the Ministry of Forests cited its Community Resilience Investment program, which supports wildfire risk reduction projects on Crown land and funding for FireSmart projects in communities across the province.


CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Lynn Lake residents asked to prepare to evacuate northern Manitoba town again Friday
Social Sharing Hundreds of Lynn Lake residents could be forced out of the northern Manitoba community, with wildfire activity once again threatening residents' safety only two weeks after they were allowed to return home. The town said in an update posted to Facebook Thursday afternoon a fire about 20 kilometres southwest of Lynn Lake could damage the main transmission line servicing the community as early as Friday. That has the potential to cause an outage that could last at least a month and would leave the town unable to maintain essential services. The notice warned residents a mandatory evacuation could be declared if there's a power outage Friday, and everyone should be ready to leave on short notice. It also encouraged anyone who can leave on their own to do so as soon as possible, saying "early voluntary departures reduce strain on emergency services and improve safety." If an evacuation is necessary, buses will run Friday for those requiring help getting out, the notice said. The town, just over 800 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, was previously given a mandatory evacuation order on May 27, which was lifted on June 20. Last week, Lynn Lake was put on evacuation alert after the nearby fires triggered air quality warnings. An out-of-control fire near the community was about 71,860 hectares in size as of the latest provincial fire bulletin Thursday. The Lynn Lake Facebook notice said two fires near Leaf Rapids — about 75 kilometres southeast as the crow flies — are threatening to cut off travel from the town to the northern hub of Thompson. Hot, dry conditions and shifting winds are forecast for the next two or three days, worsening wildfire activity and increasing the risk to infrastructure, the town said. The fire threatening the transmission line near McVeigh was expected to cross Provincial Road 396 Thursday, the notice said, adding it could also impact travel and fire response access. Roughly 600 people live in Lynn Lake.


CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Tornado warning issued for parts of southeastern Sask.
A photo shared by storm chaser Jenny Hagan shows an apparent tornado near Paynton, Sask. on July 8, 2022. (Twitter/@LostInSk)