Victoria – Based on advice from emergency management and wildfire officials, British Columbia’s provincial state of emergency will expire at the end of the day on Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023.
The work of firefighters from B.C., Canada and abroad, as well as wildfire risk diminishing in much of the Province as temperatures cool, has led to many British Columbians returning home. As of Thursday, Sept. 14, about 370 people are on evacuation order and more than 18,000 are on evacuation alert. These numbers are a substantial improvement over the last several weeks.
“While the provincial state of emergency is no longer required, the wildfire season is not over,” said Bowinn Ma, Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness. “Many communities still have local states of emergency in place and the expiration of the provincial state of emergency does not impact wildfire-fighting resources or our ability to continue to provide emergency supports to communities. In particular, conditions continue to be very challenging in northern B.C., with 125 active fires in the Prince George Fire Centre, and the Province will continue to surge resources into the North as required.”
The Wildfire Act provides the Province with all the legislative tools needed to ensure the co-ordination of provincial and international resources, and support for responding to wildfires. Six hundred out-of-province personnel are currently assisting wildfire response and B.C. continues to co-ordinate additional out-of-province resources through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.
BC Wildfire Service information and updates: http://www.bcwildfire.ca/
Emergency information: http://www.emergencyinfobc.ca
And: http://www.twitter.com/EmergencyInfoBC
To check current weather alerts, visit: http://weather.gc.ca
