On Wednesday night local time, Lytton Mayor Jean Polderman ordered the village’s 250 residents to evacuate the burning town.
– It’s an emergency. The whole city is on fire, Bolderman told CBS News.
– It took about a full 15 minutes from the time the first smoke appeared until suddenly burning everywhere.
Lytton, about 260 miles northeast of Vancouver in British Columbia, has Earlier this week caught the world’s attention for records of extreme temperatures observed there.
The highest temperature ever measured in Canada on Sunday was 46.6 degrees Celsius, which broke the previous record of 45 degrees. Less than 24 hours later, Lytton set a new record, when 47.9 degrees Celsius was measured on Monday.
Tuesday He broke the record for the third time when 49.6 score was noted.
A number of wildfires have erupted in British Columbia since rows of record temperatures have been shattered in recent days.
Photo: BC Wildfire Service/AFP
On Wednesday, the fire broke outJust as the experts have warned. The warm village was set on fire in a short time.
The area has recently had so many heat records that it is difficult to keep track. These are temperatures that are far from normal in Canada and are more common in the Middle East.
High temperature and drought make nature pure firewood. It has been seen in other places and on other continents, such as California, Australia and Siberia. The climate crisis increases the risks.
In California, for example study shows That since the 1970s, the area that burns during the summer months from June to September has increased by 800 percent. In total over the entire season, the area of wildfires increased fivefold over the same period.
According to the provincial fire departmentAnd the BC Wildfire Service They fought many wildfires in the area before the warning came from Lytton, and a lot of lightning was sparked by thunderstorms. Many fires are out of control.
https://twitter.com/Tarnjitkparmar/status/1410461651304779782
People living in communities outside Lytton have also been urged to leave their homes and leave the area.
Wildfires are being put out with people on the ground and helicopters, but according to the fire authority, the intense heat means helicopters are allowed to stay on the ground because the engines are overheating.
Read more: Janick Kjellberg: Heat is the silent killer of the climate crisis
– I’ve never seen such harsh conditions for wildfires. Unfortunately, we’ll see similar conditions the rest of the week, CBS meteorologist Joanna Wagstaff says.
– I’ve never seen such harsh conditions for wildfires. Unfortunately, we’ll see similar conditions the rest of the week, CBS meteorologist Joanna Wagstaff says.
The people of Lytton were forced to flee So fast that many didn’t have time to bring in any belongings, pets or livestock, according to CBC.
– It’s completely incomprehensible. You can not understand it. Our entire city is gone, Edith Loring Kohanga, a school principal in Lytton, tells CBC Radio.
The extreme heat that has engulfed western Canada and the northwestern United States recently is linked to climate change.
Without human-caused climate change, it would be virtually impossible to reach such records in June average temperatures in the western United States. The chance of such a natural ending is one in ten thousand years. In the current climate, extremely hot June is common and could likely happen twice in thirty years, says Nikos Christidis, a climate researcher at the UK Met Office.
Read more: Jannike Kihlberg: Welcome to a world that is getting warmer
The sweltering heat was already deadly. At least 486 sudden deaths were reported in five days in British Columbia during a heat wave, and there are usually about 165 sudden deaths during the same period.
“Although it is too early to determine the number of heat-related deaths, it is possible that the sharp increase in deaths reported is related to the severe weather the region has experienced and continues to experience,” Chief Medical Officer Lisa Lapointe said in a statement, according to The Guardian.
As DN wrote previously, the show was made recently Study in the journal Nature Climate Change which showed that more than a third, 37 percent, of all heat-related deaths in the world are caused by human-caused climate change.
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