Forest fires force thousands to flee in Canada

Terra Daily, via Agence France-Presse: Raging forest fires in western Canada have forced 10,000 people to evacuate their homes with thousands more poised to flee the flames that began consuming thousands of acres at the weekend, local officials said.

"Right now there are over 10,000 people who have been evacuated... and then we've got over 6,000 people on evacuation alert," said Jenelle Turpin, an Emergency Operations Center officer in Kelowna, a British Columbia city of 100,000 people about 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Vancouver. "They've been out of their homes for the last two days with very little clothing or their support stuff from home, Turpin said.

Three fires broke out from Saturday in pine forests which cover the mountainsides ringing Kelowna and the surrounding area, one of western Canada's main wine-growing regions…

A 1951 forest fire in Wolf Creek, Oregon, shot by Bluford W. Muir, US Department of Agriculture