Wildfire destroys about 230 homes in western Canadian Indigenous community, officials say

VERNON, British Columbia — A fast-moving wildfire destroyed about 230 homes in an Indigenous community in western Canada, officials said Tuesday, making it one of the country’s most destructive fires in recent years.

Dan Wilson, chief of the Okanagan Indian Band, said the Bradley Creek wildfire devastated much of a reserve community near Vernon, about 440 kilometers (275 miles) northeast of Vancouver.

“It was hard to recognize my community from the air with all the structures and the forest gone,” Wilson said after surveying the area by helicopter.

The destruction ranks among Canada’s worst recent wildfires. A 2024 blaze in Jasper, Alberta, destroyed about 350 homes, while the 2023 McDougall Creek wildfire, also in British Columbia’s Okanagan region, destroyed about 200 homes.

Canada has endured increasingly destructive wildfire seasons in recent years, with smoke from the blazes repeatedly spreading across North America and triggering widespread air-quality alerts.

Wilson called the devastation “surreal” and said it was one of the darkest days in the band’s history. The fire erupted late Friday and was driven by wind gusts of up to 115 kilometers (71 miles) per hour.

“The fire spread so fast that some of our members only had five minutes to evacuate,” he said.

Wilson said aerial firefighting crews helped save critical infrastructure, including a daycare center and a newly built school, by repeatedly dropping water on the area.

Among those forced to flee were Louis and Shorty Fred, who said they escaped Saturday with flames close behind them.

“I’ve been living here all my life, and I’ve really never seen anything like this,” Louis Fred said. “Even 2021 was bad. It was huge. But the wind wasn’t nothing like compared to this one.”

About 8,000 people have been evacuated across British Columbia, Emergency Management Minister Kelly Greene said. There were 37 evacuation orders Tuesday, with conditions changing hourly.

The BC Wildfire Service said about 120 wildfires were burning across the province, roughly 50 of them out of control. In addition to Bradley Creek, major fires were burning near the communities of Boston Bar, Clinton and Kimberley.

“My thoughts are with everyone whose life has been upended by the wildfires in British Columbia. The Bradley Creek wildfire alone has forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes in the past few days,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a post on social media.