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STORY: ::Firefighters battle a large wildfire heading

towards a remote western Canadian town

::May 13, 2024

::Fort Nelson, Canada

::Bowinn Ma/Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness, British Columbia

“Over the weekend and as of 7:00 AM this morning approximately 4,700 people were placed under an evacuation order due to the Parker Lake Wildfire in the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality.”

“BC Wildfire Service wildfire crews and local fire crews and fire departments from across the province are doing everything they can do to protect homes and the community.”

The largely evacuated town of Fort Nelson in British Columbia is in the line of one of the season's first major wildfires that have spread to 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres) across Western Canada and are sending smoke plumes over five provinces, as well as parts of the northern U.S.

The fire, which started on Friday, covered over 5,280 hectares (13,050 acres) and had reached 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) west of Fort Nelson by Monday morning.

After its worst-ever-wildfire season last year, Canada experienced one of its warmest winters with low to non-existent snow in many areas, raising fears of a hot summer triggering blazes in forests and wild lands amid an ongoing drought.