Forest fire in Canada forces 30,000 to flee

A firestorm that forced 30,000 people to flee their community in western Canada has reduced at least 200 homes to smouldering rubble. The Okanagan Mountain forest fire, with 400ft flames moving at 100 yards a minute, forced the evacuation of nearly one-third of Kelowna's residents.

A firestorm that forced 30,000 people to flee their community in western Canada has reduced at least 200 homes to smouldering rubble. The Okanagan Mountain forest fire, with 400ft flames moving at 100 yards a minute, forced the evacuation of nearly one-third of Kelowna's residents.

Officials who surveyed the the city's southern outskirts by helicopter said damage was so extensive it was sometimes difficult to determine what had been a house. "We got hammered pretty good," Kelowna's fire chief, Gerry Zimmerman said, his voice cracking with emotion. "Those homes aren't half gone, they're flat."

Five hundred firefighters and soldiers are trying to stem the blaze that had destroyed many houses but left neighbouring buildings untouched. Fires trucks rushed through the area to deal with blazes in the nearby woods.

Officials ordered 20,000 people to flee with only a few minutes warning on Friday evening as the forest fire began to "crown", moving rapidly from treetop to treetop. Witnesses told of flames leaping from building to building, some of which exploded in the intense heat. Similar conditions had forced 10,000 people to leave their homes on Thursday.

The fire, 185 miles east of Vancouver, began on 16 August with a lightning strike in the mountains. British Columbia, suffering its worst forest-fire season in decades, has been in a state of emergency since the beginning of August. Some areas in the southern half of the province have had little or no rain in weeks.

Eight large blazes are burning out of control near populated areas in south-central British Columbia, and no rain was predicted for the region in "the foreseeable future". People have been warned to stay out of forests and off wilderness roads and campsites in the southern half of British Columbia. The province is Canada's third largest, at roughly the size of France and Germany combined.