Canada Battles More Than 180 Wildfires With Hundreds Dead In Heat Wave hawaiipublicradio.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from hawaiipublicradio.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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image captionFires are raging north of the city of Kamloops, British Columbia
The Canadian military is on standby to help evacuate residents in British Columbia where wildfires linked to a record-breaking heatwave threaten to engulf communities.
Emergency services say they are now trying to control more than 170 fires, many triggered by lightning strikes.
Many western areas are tinder-dry followed the unprecedented hot weather.
Meanwhile, at least two people are reported to have died in the village of Lytton that was destroyed by fire.
Lytton recorded Canada s highest-ever temperature of 49.6C (121.3F) on Tuesday.
About 350 military personnel as well as aircraft are being readied to help threatened communities, Canadian defence Minister Harjit Sajjan told reporters.
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Kais Bothe seeks relief from searing temperatures in Edmonton, Alberta, on June 30, 2021.
Across the Pacific Northwest and into Canada, a record-breaking heat wave has pushed death tolls into staggering territory. In British Columbia alone, at least 500 heat-related deaths have been recorded since last Friday. In Oregon, 95 deaths have been attributed to scorching temperatures, as well as about 20 in Washington.
The past week has brought unprecedented temperatures to a region of North America ill-equipped to handle extreme heat as authorities struggle to respond to thousands of emergency calls, hundreds of deaths, and explosive wildfires. The unprecedented event is also a sign of more danger to come as climate change leads to more extreme weather across the country.
British Columbia Wildfire Service/Twitter
(CNN) The Canadian village that set an all-time national heat record this week has been “devastated” by a fast-moving wildfire that engulfed the small town “within minutes” following an intense heat wave, officials said Thursday.
Two people have died from the fire that devastated the small Canadian village of Lytton, the British Columbia Coroners Service said on Friday.
Officials from Lytton say they are still searching for missing residents as most of the community burned to ground on Wednesday, just a day after it broke a record for the hottest temperature ever recorded in Canada.