The 170 new starts come on the heels of a record-setting heatwave at the end of June and a thunderstorm in the region on July 1. Kamloops Fire Centre (KFC) manager Kaitlin Baskerville said the heatwave accelerated the drying out of vegetation in most of the province by three weeks and many fires have experienced extreme growth as a result. “We are currently seeing conditions that more closely resemble what we would see mid-August and we’re seeing it at the end of June and beginning of July with the temperatures we’ve seen and the lack of precipitation over the last two months,” Baskerville said of fire conditions in the KFC.