Thousands of British Columbia residents fled their homes on Saturday after rapidly intensifying wildfires forced the western Canadian province to declare a state of emergency.
The Pacific province has seen strong winds and dry lightning in the past 36 hours due to a cold mass of air interacting with hot air built-up in the sultry summer. That intensified existing forest fires in the province and ignited new ones.
By Friday, an out-of-control fire in southern British Columbia grew more than hundredfold in 24 hours and forced more than 2,400 properties to be evacuated. The fire was centered around Kelowna, a city some 300 kilometres (180 miles) east of Vancouver, with a population of about 150,000.
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