Jan Wesner Childs
A man in Lytton, British Columbia, says his parents died in a raging wildfire that destroyed most of the town amid this week's historic heat wave.
Jeff Chapman told the Vancouver Sun he helped his mother and father take shelter in a pit that was being dug in their yard for some construction work. Chapman said there wasn't enough room for him so he ran from the flames.
He said he saw a power pole blow up and fall on the hole where his parents were.
“It’s their grave now,” Chapman said.
(MORE: Dozens of All-Time Heat Records Tied or Broken in Pacific Northwest, Western Canada)
Officials said Friday morning that it was still too dangerous to go into the area.
"The situation is being continually assessed and when safe to do so we will be entering the area to conduct a formal search, specifically for any injured or missing people. We have not been able to confirm any fatalities at this time," Dwayne McDonald, commanding officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia said in a statement.
More than 100 fires were burning in British Columbia as of Friday morning, according to the provincial B.C. Wildfire Service. About 50 those were started in the last two days.
"We are facing very difficult firefighting conditions due to the weather we're seeing across the province," Jean Strong, an information officer for the service, told the CBC.
"It's continuing to be very dry, very hot, and we are seeing that wind come through, which can make firefighting a challenge."
Nine of the current blazes are considered "wildfires of note." Of all the fires burning, about 11% are classified as under control, according to the wildfire service.
Evacuation orders were issued in several areas on Thursday as the fires continued to burn and new ones started across the province.
Lytton, a small town about 95 miles northeast of Vancouver, reached the highest temperatures ever recorded in Canada for an incredible three days in a row earlier this week.
Then the fire started.
Residents around the area fled as the flames closed in.
“I was still sitting there and wondering what to pack, emotionally walking out my door but thinking ‘I’m leaving all this behind.’ It’s hard. Very hard,” Jean McKay, who lives south of Lytton in the First Nations community of Kanaka Bar, told The Associated Press. "My daughter phoned before we lost services and stuff, she’s telling us, ‘Get out of there, get out of there.’"
(MORE: Scores of Deaths, Hospitalizations Blamed on Record-Smashing Heat Wave)
Many lost everything.
"It's just unbelievable. You can't even comprehend it," Edith Loring-Kuhanga, an administrator at a school in the village of Lytton, told CBC Radio. "Our entire town is gone."
Lytton Mayor Jan Polderman told CBC wildfire rapidly spread into the community of about 250 people. He signed the order telling everyone to leave on Wednesday evening.
"It took, like, a whole 15 minutes from the first sign of smoke to, all of a sudden, there being fire everywhere," Polderman said.
Most of the town burned to the ground.
"The town has sustained structural damage and 90% of the village is burned, including the center of town," Brad Vis, a member of Canada's parliament, said in an update Thursday afternoon.Relatives of residents, as well as local officials, were working to account for those who fled the town any way they could.
As of Friday morning, the cause of the fire was still under investigation but officials said it may have been sparked by a passing train.
Numbers still need to be confirmed, but Lytton appears to have crushed Canada's all-time record high temperature three days in a row during the blistering heat wave that gripped western Canada and the U.S. Northwest over the weekend and into the early part of this week.
Temperatures in Lytton reached 115.9 degrees on Sunday, 118.2 degrees on Monday and 121.3 degrees on Tuesday, according to data compiled by weather.com meteorologists.
The blazes in British Columbia produced hundreds of thousands of lightning strikes, some of which may have started other fires.
"That happens when fires are so hot that they create rapidly rising air," weather.com meteorologist Ari Sarsalari said. "This rising air becomes an updraft, and when coupled with water vapor - which is often a byproduct of fires - these big thunderstorm clouds will form."
About 60% of the fires burning as of Friday morning were sparked by lightning, according to the wildfire service.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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