The provincial state of emergency surrounding wildfires is over, but fires are still being fought throughout B.C.
A release from the province says the state of emergency ended Thursday night as work from firefighters and falling temperatures have allowed a lot of people to go back home.
However, around 370 people are still on evacuation order and more than 18,000 are on evacuation alert as of yesterday but the province says this is a large improvement from the last several weeks when 70,000 were on evacuation alert at the end of August.
As of Friday, there are 42 fires burning in the Coastal Fire Centre and minister of emergency management and climate readiness Bowinn Ma says the fire season is not over.
“Many communities still have local states of emergency in place and the expiration of the provincial state of emergency does not impact wildfire-fighting resources or our ability to continue to provide emergency supports to communities,” said Ma.
“In particular, conditions continue to be very challenging in northern B.C., with 125 active fires in the Prince George Fire Centre, and the province will continue to surge resources into the north as required.”
The province adds there are over 600 personnel fighting fires from outside of B.C. and more resources are still getting coordinated.
