Canada is facing a fire season and on Friday a state of emergency was declared. The most severe fire is raging in the hills and mountains surrounding the western city of Kelowna, where thousands of residents have been evacuated from their homes.
The country is dealing with fires of an unprecedented scale that continue to extinguish forests and threaten homes.
The Prime Minister of British Columbia said "We are dealing with the worst forest fire season in the history of our province, in the last day the situation has deteriorated rapidly. The situation at the moment is unpredictable and there are definitely difficult days ahead."
Currently, forest fires are flooding the Northwest Territories. Due to their rapid advance, residents of Yellowknife, one of the main cities in Canada's far north, were ordered to evacuate by noon Friday. In total, nearly 168,000 people have been forced to evacuate since the fire season began. 20,000 residents live in the city and so far 19,000 have been evacuated from their homes.
The authorities said, "If you are still in Yellowknife and not essential for the emergency teams to operate, please leave." A local politician defined the city as one that has become a ghost town.