Forest fires in British Columbia: new evacuations

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AFP

Sunday, 30 July, 2017 11:58

UPDATE
Sunday, 30 July, 2017 11:58

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The fires ravaging the forests of British Columbia since weeks have prompted new evacuations during the weekend.

The rapid progress of the flames has forced the authorities to decide on Saturday night the evacuation of the town of Clinton and its surrounding area.

Clinton, which has some 650 inhabitants, is located a hundred kilometers of Kamloops, a city of approximately 100 000 inhabitants located at 350 km northeast of Vancouver.

The vast majority of the approximately 46 000 people driven from their homes by forest fires since the proclamation of the state of emergency in the province on 7 July, had been allowed to return to her home in the last few days.

But there’s only about 5000 people, according to local authorities. 148 fires, fought by more than 4700 firefighters, are still active in the province, and the flames have destroyed more than 390 000 hectares since 1 April of this year.

The prime minister Justin Trudeau has called his compatriots to donate generously to help the flood victims by attending on Saturday, at a fund-raiser for the canadian Red Cross in British Columbia. It has repeated its offer to provide federal assistance equal to the funds collected by the Red Cross and stated that he would in the coming days in the areas affected by the fires.