An 80-year-old woman died while trying to flee her home as a fast-moving wildfire swept through British Columbia, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said late yesterday.
The Summerland fire began Friday near Okanagan Lake and quickly expanded, prompting authorities to order more than 20,000 people to evacuate.
Meanwhile, many of the tens of thousands of residents forced from their homes by a cluster of wildfires near Spokane, Washington, were permitted to return yesterday as firefighters worked to contain the last pockets of heat.
Nearly 1,700 firefighters held the three fires, which began on the outskirts of the state’s second-most populous city on 1 August, despite another spell of hot, dry weather over the weekend, officials said.
No serious injuries or fatalities have been reported.
Tens of thousands were forced to flee a cluster of wildfires near Spokane, Washington
For days, the fires around Spokane remained the highest firefighting priority in the United States, including across the drought-stricken Pacific Northwest, where dozens of blazes have burned for weeks and sent smoke and soot over a broad area.
Across the US-Canadian border, another wildfire tore through more than 10,300 hectares in a wine-producing area of British Columbia over the weekend, officials said.
Authorities declared a state of emergency in the province and ordered about 18,000 people to leave as towering flames consumed homes and other properties.
In Washington, crews continued mop-up work, turning their attention to extinguishing hot spots among the smoldering remains of the neighborhoods that suffered the heaviest damage, fire officials said.
Residents will not be allowed back into communities at the center of the fire zones indefinitely, until authorities determine that the areas are safe.
However, roads were reopened and evacuation orders lifted in communities outside the fires’ immediate footprint, giving displaced residents there the chance to return, Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels said at a news conference.
Greece battles new fire near Athens driven by winds
A new wildfire erupted southeast of Athens on Monday morning, driven by winds exceeding 70 kilometres per hour, firefighters said.
The fire service said on X that at least 172 firefighters and about 40 vehicles had been sent to battle the blaze near Kouvaras, 60km southeast of Athens in the Attica region.
The response also includes “two water-bombing aircraft and four helicopters”, the service added.
Civil protection authorities ordered residents of Agios Stylianos, a village near Kouvaras, to evacuate.
The blaze is the second to threaten the Athens area this summer. A fire that started 10 days ago northwest of the capital destroyed more than 11,000 hectares of pine forest and farmland.
Gusts reaching as high as 130km/ph prolonged that operation, with firefighters needing five days to bring the flames under control.
Two helicopter crew members died after colliding with another helicopter while fighting the fire.
As in much of the Mediterranean, Greece has faced wildfires that are becoming more frequent and severe, a trend scientists associate with climate change.
The country remains under extreme alert, while several regions continue to carry a very high fire-risk classification.
Experts have warned that fires in Attica, home to Athens, are becoming more destructive.From 2017 to 2026, 42% of the region’s total forest area burned in 15 major fires.
