By Juliana Rose Pignataro
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Western Canada is still contending with a number of devastating wildfires this week, and a state of emergency remained in effect for British Columbia amid the burning. Some 596 wildfires were burning as of Monday, according to Global News.
Forty one fires burning in BC on Monday were considered "wildfires of note," according to Global News. Those fires are described as being especially visibly or posing a threat to public safety.
A map published by Google Crisis Response showed clusters of the fires of note as well as new fires and smaller, still burning fires.
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Evacuation orders remained in effect for certain places in BC, delaying the start of school for some. Classes were set to resume on Tuesday for much of the region, but the start date was held off for those in evacuation zones.
Hundreds of fires burned in British Columbia throughout August. A state of emergency was declared by Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth at the time in an effort to ensure adequate resources were directed to firefighting.
Some 2,035 fires have burned since April 1 this year. More than 1.3 million hectares of land have burned from the fires, according to the BC Wildfire service. The 2018 season surpassed the 2017 fire season to become the worst on record in late August, CBC News reported.
Firefighters have made progress battling the flames, including in the fight against some of the worst fires in the region. The Shovel Lake Fire, one of the largest, was contained over the weekend, according to CTV News. Firefighters were aided by showers in the area and predicted that the fire would not grow further.
"People still need to be vigilant," said Doug Donaldson, minister of forests, lands, natural resource operations and rural development, according to the Prince George Citizen. "This is a huge fire season and in terms of the numbers of hectares burned, it's the largest on record in BC."
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