11,000 Flee Raging Wildfires in British Columbia

By Mat Probasco,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 20, 2009 1:44 AM CDT
11,000 Flee Raging Wildfires in British Columbia
Smoke from wildfires hangs in the air at sunset as a boat sails on Lake Okanagan in Kelowna, British Columbia. Thousands of residents have fled the three wildfires burning around Kelowna.

"Hellish" wildfires have forced some 11,000 from their homes in Kelowna, British Columbia, reports the Vancouver Sun. Strong winds over the weekend quickly turned two small fires into separate infernos just six miles apart, engulfing more than 1,000 acres of a scenic area 150 miles east of Vancouver. “We grabbed our pictures, our house insurance papers, found the cat and pretty much dumped as much as we could in the truck,” said one resident who fled with his wife and daughter.
(More wildfires stories.)

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