Fire after high temperatures in Canada: ‘a miracle if everyone survived’

Lytton (Canada) burns after temperatures rise: ‘A miracle if everyone could survive’

After days of soaring temperatures, residents of the Canadian town of Lytton were forced to flee their homes due to a raging fire. The thermometer reached nearly 50 degrees.

But that wasn’t alone, Lytton set new heat records for three straight days. Adjusted temperature records give a picture of the situation in Canada. The previous 1937 record was broken in eleven spots, all within the past three days:

Mayor Jan Bolderman ordered the evacuation of the place in British Columbia on Wednesday evening, CBC television reported. The pictures on the site are exciting:

“Horrible. The whole city is burning,” the mayor said. “It took about 15 minutes from the first signs of smoke to the point where suddenly fire broke out everywhere.”

According to the Canadian news portal City News Bolderman feared there would be dead: “It would be a miracle if everyone survived.”

According to the Met Office, the thermometer showed 49.6 degrees Celsius on Tuesday in the city of about 250 people, an “all-time record for temperatures”. Lytton is located about 260 kilometers northeast of Vancouver. Because of the fires, many residents had to go down to safety, some without their belongings, CBC reported. The fire department reported Twitter Several fires in the area. aDimensional information was not initially available.

However, satellite images show how quickly the fires can spread:

486 deaths due to heat

The ongoing heat wave in western Canada has already caused hundreds of deaths, according to authorities. From Friday to Wednesday, the West Coast County Coroner said, 486 sudden and unexpected deaths were reported in British Columbia.

This number is likely to increase. It’s 195 percent higher than the usual average for a similar period. The agency hypothesized that the sharp rise was related to the extreme heat. Even in the west of United States of America Record temperatures have been measured in the past few days. (jaw/sda/dpa)