Canadian Military on Standby as Lightning Triggers More Wildfires

Due to the wildfires, the Canadian military is set to evacuate the residents as their lives are being threatened by the record-breaking heatwave that is ready to engulf the whole community.

About 170 fires, triggered by lightning strikes, are now under the control of Emergency services.

The unprecedented hot weather is seen to have resulted in the tinder-dry condition of many western areas.

Sadly enough, at least two people are reported to have died in the village of Lytton, which was swept by fire.

The Canadian defense minister, Harjit Sajjan told the reporters about the already prepared set of canadian military personnel about 350 of them are to help see to the wellbeing of threatened communities.

This occurred shortly after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held emergency talks with ministers including provincial and indigenous leaders from affected areas.

“We will be there to help,” he said.

The happenings of the recent high-pressure “heat dome”, causing abnormally high temperatures in Large swathes of North America isn’t new. Even places like Albertson, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories, and Northern Ontario have been affected.

The exaggeration of the incident of the heatwave being related to global warming is quite complicated, though experts made it known that climate change could as well be the major cause of the increase in the frequency of extreme weather events.

There’s a thorough exercise of evacuation orders and alerts in several areas north of the city of Kamloops,350km(220 miles) north-east of Vancouver with the worst fires, in British Columbia

 Cliff Chapman, the director of provincial operations for the British Columbia Wildfire Service mentioned that”We saw 12,000 lightning strikes, roughly, yesterday [Friday],”

He added, “Many of those lightning strikes were hitting near communities… in the Kamloops area,” according to broadcaster CBC.

The death of at least two people, confirmed by the British Columbia Coroner Service on Saturday, in Lytton where a wildfire that occurred on Wednesday sent its 250 residents fleeing without their belongings.

A victim by name of  Jeff Chapman told CBC  earlier on he had seen his parents killed by the fire in the process of seeking refuge in a trench near their home.

Lytton Mayor Jan Polderman told the BBC: “Within about 15 minutes the whole town was engulfed in flames.”

Based on the extreme heat, British Columbia Chief Coroner, Lisa Lapointe said it must’ve been “a significant contributing factor” to a recent spike in deaths. Over 719 deaths were three times the average number.

“Many of the deaths experienced over the past week were among older individuals living alone in private residences with minimal ventilation,” she said on Saturday.

Even with the ease in temperature in coastal areas, there’s no room for respite for inland regions. British Columbia said it was braced for more fires.