New evacuation orders in Canada wildfires, but not everyone leaves home – B.C. Wildfire Service urges locals to head for safety, saying “areas are evacuated for good reason”

By Rhianna Schmunk
30 July 2017
(CBC News) – Hundreds of people in B.C.’s southern Cariboo region were under a wildfire evacuation order on Saturday night, but not everyone chose to leave town — something fire officials called “concerning.”The village of Clinton, which has a population of about 650, was told to evacuate due to the nearby Elephant Hill wildfire. Residents had been under an evacuation alert for weeks.Linda LePage has asthma and left her home early, while her husband stayed behind with the property.
“The sky was all red. It was pretty scary,” she said of her drive out of town. “I couldn’t breathe at all, I had to get out … I only had one headlight, so I drove to Barrière [188 kilometres away] and then I pulled over.”
“I’m really stressed,” LePage told CBC News after finally arriving in Kamloops. She said she was worried about another property she and her husband own in Horse Lake, not far from where another wildfire is raging. A heat wave is in the forecast for the southern part of the province this week, with temperatures expected to hit 40 degrees Celsius in the Interior — without any rain. [more]

B.C. wildfires lead to new evacuation orders, but not everyone leaves home