Hot, dry weather and gusting winds have fueled wildfires raging in British Columbia and Alberta. The fires, considered the worst in 50 years, have consumed dozens of buildings and forced 11,000 people to evacuate in mostly rural communities.
``I've never experienced fuels at the dryness level they are here,'' Beaver said Sunday. ``Right now nature is really holding all the trump cards.''
British Columbia's two most serious fires were north and west of Kamloops in a region about 180 miles northeast of Vancouver. The larger of the two had increased from 1,987 acres early Sunday to 2,125 acres by the afternoon, as flames swept through forests and grasslands dried by a hot summer with little recent rain.
Those fires aren't huge _ a fire in Montana is burning 25,000 acres _ but they are threatening homes. Alberta officials ordered the evacuation of another 1,000 people from the town of Blairmore, adding to the 1,100 who already fled the region.
While no deaths have been reported, British Columbia declared a state of emergency to hasten federal help, with firefighters from neighboring Alberta and Ontario provinces arriving to help battle 350 blazes. Soldiers have also been dispatched to help out.
In Alberta, another cluster of fires threatened two communities in a mountainous region near the border with Montana. Fire information officer Marty O'Toole reported that flames were within five miles of the U.S. border.
Plumes of smoke drifted over Kamloops as officials hurried to coordinate 700 firefighters battling blazes on the surrounding mountainsides. By nightfall, flames could be seen from the city of 80,000 that serves as administrative center and gateway to smaller resort towns of the province's interior.
``We were overwhelmed at the start of it,'' Kamloops Deputy Fire Chief Dave Marcotte said Sunday. ``Our resources are back up, our men are rested and we are ready to tackle anything that happens.''
About 3,500 people who fled to Kamloops from the surrounding area are staying in hotels, houses and the local hockey arena, officials said.
Fires still burned Sunday in downtown Barriere and two subdivisions of the community 40 miles north of Kamloops, authorities said.
Jack Butcher, a Barriere rescue officer who made it back to the town Sunday, later stood outside the Kamloops evacuation center telling people what he saw.
``The camper's there but not the house,'' he told one grime-covered couple.
Butcher said 60 homes and several businesses were destroyed, including the lumber mill.
A 53-year-old Barriere man was badly burned on the face and upper body when he stayed behind to help a neighbor protect his home.
The McLure-Barriere fire was apparently started by a discarded cigarette, authorities said.
Officials also reported 80 forest fires in the prairie province of Saskatchewan and 14 fires in neighboring Manitoba, including a 98,000-acre blaze near Thompson in the remote north.
British Columbia officials also were monitoring a 76,000-acre fire at Farewell Creek in neighboring Washington state.
