Residents of Lower Post, B.C., told to take refuge in Yukon as wildfire rages

Residents of a tiny British Columbia community near the Yukon boundary are the latest to be forced from their homes by a wildfire.

Roughly 80 residents of Lower Post received evacuation notices Tuesday as the BC Wildfire Service warned a 40-square-kilometre blaze to the south has moved within five kilometres of the village and also threatens the enclave of Skooks Landing.

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DriveBC, the B.C. government’s online service for travellers, says nearby wildfires have closed Highway 97, the Alaska Highway, from the Yukon boundary to Coal River, southeast of Lower Post.

Evacuees are being directed to the recreation centre in Watson Lake, Yukon, about 20 kilometres away.

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Officials have said roughly 3,000 B.C. residents are under evacuation orders due to wildfires and thousands more are on alert as hundreds of blazes char timber and bush in all areas of the province.

B.C. declared a state of emergency last week and Premier John Horgan met with fire crews in Prince George Tuesday, but thick smoke prevented his aircraft from landing in Burns Lake.