As firefighters awoke across British Columbia on Sunday morning, a total of 220 wildfires were still burning throughout the province, a large number of them out of control.
Just short of 100 fire starts were reported Saturday. Friday was one of the busiest wildfire days in B.C. history, with 140 blazes starting across the province.
Topping the list are the Gustafsen fire west of 100 Mile House (3,200 hectares, 107 firefighters), the 150 Mile House fire (2,500 hectares), the Dragon Mountain wildfire southeast of Quesnel (1,500 hectares), the Wildwood fire near the Williams Lake airport (2,000 hectares), the fire 10km northeast of Princeton (1,500 hectares), the Little Fort wildfires (900 hectares) and the blaze on the Ashcroft Reserve (4,400 hectares, zero per cent containment).
The Hanceville Fires, a collection of a number of blazes west of Williams Lake, are believed to measure roughly 5,700 hectares in size.
All sizes are estimates due to low visibility in the regions.
Thirty wildfires are currently active in the Kamloops Fire Centre.
According to July 8 statistics from the B.C. Wildfire Service, 552 fires have occurred provincially in the current fiscal year —April 1, 2017 to April 31, 2018 — 86 of them in the Kamloops Fire Centre.
Fifty-two of those fires provincially have been lightning-caused, while another eight have been deemed to have been human-caused.
18,244 hectares of land has burned in the current fiscal year, 5,931ha of it in the Kamloops Fire Centre.
Ninety-six fires were confirmed on Saturday alone.
Saturday afternoon, the Thompson-Nicola Regional District issued further evacuation orders, requiring residents in the area of Scottie Creek and Hihium Lake to leave their homes, while also putting the Loon Lake community on evacuation alert.
According to the B.C. Wildfire Service, based on fire behaviour on Sunday, further evacuations in Quesnel and to areas north of Cache Creek may soon be a possibility.
The TNRD’s Emergency Social Services centre can be accessed by evacuees at Thompson Rivers University.
The TNRD also held an information meeting in Clearwater for evacuees on Sunday night at 7 p.m. at the Clearwater secondary school.
Little relief is expected in the way of weather, with Environment Canada predicting little to no rain in its seven-day forecasts for Williams Lake, Cache Creek, 100 Mile House, Quesnel and Princeton.
Gusty winds are expected throughout Sunday.