Evacuation orders lifted but weather favours fires: officials

Some wildfire evacuees near British Columbia's Slocan Lake are able to return home after the Regional District of Central Kootenay rescinded an evacuation order for an area south of Lemon Creek.

An evacuation alert remains in place for 65 addresses and 20 parcels of land near the Ponderosa FSR wildfire, which is burning around 150 kilometres east of Kelowna, B.C.

Evacuation orders still applyfor more than 400 properties to the north, including the Village of Slocan, asthe Slocan Lake wildfire complex continues to burn.

There are almost 360 wildfires burning across the province as of Thursday morning, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS), up from about 330 last week.The majority of active wildfireswere caused by lightning.

Crewsput out more than 200 wildfires in the past week, according to the BCWS, which says there are more than 1,400 personnel, nearly 200 aircraft and more than 200 "structure protection" vehicleslike fire truckscurrently tackling blazes across B.C.

This year is already the fourth-most destructive wildfire season on record, according to BCWS data,with more than 9,100 square kilometres of land having beenburned so far. The 2023 fire season was considered the most destructive ever recorded by area burned, at 28,400 square kilometres.

Otherorders downgraded

Several other evacuation orders were downgraded earlier this week.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Penticton Indian Band downgraded an order to an evacuation alert after the BCWS designated theLower Blue Mountain wildfire as under control, meaning it's not likely to spread.

An evacuation orderdue to the Argenta Creek wildfire at the north end of Kootenay Lake was also downgraded on Tuesday afternoon.

Prime conditionsfor wildfires

Sarah Buddwith the BCWSsaid the serviceexpects hot and dry conditions to persist across most of B.C. into the weekend.

Most of the province will continue to see a significant chance of thunderstorm activity with little rainfall to dampen fires, she added.

"When we have those sorts of consecutive days of warming and drying, itbuilds up what we call our fire weather indices we have drier fuels that are more susceptible to ignition and our relative humidity gets lower," Budd said.

"August is typically our most intense month of the year for fire activity in British Columbia."

She said lightning strikes in the past week may have started small fires, which smoulder until they get enough oxygen to grow often with the aid of wind.

The hot and dry conditions have also prompted the Northwest Fire Centre to reinstate a campfire ban that waslifted last month.The ban will come back into effect at noon Saturday.

According to Natural Resources Canada, human-driven climate change means hot and dry weather will happen more often, drying out plant matter that fuels fires, and creatingthe conditions in which they thrive.