Wildfire scorches more than five lakh hectares in British Columbia

In a tweet, BC Wildfire Service stated approximately 591, 280 hectares of land were scorched till now.

The update provided by the BC Wildfire also said around 132 wildfires are still burning.

There have been 900 wildfires since April 1, BC Wildfire said.

On July 7, the disaster occurred when lightening storm made the fire spread rapidly in the Interior of B.C. An emergency was called immediately after the wildfire.

It continued to grow forcing local people to flee from their homes.

A media report on July 28 suggested around 10000 people were forced to go out of Williams Lake, the largest city in the Central Interior of British Columbia, which was under a high alert.

This year's wildfire has now become the worst since 1958, Global News said.

The record of wildfires are kept since 1950.

In 1958, 8560 sq. kms were burnt due to the wildfire contrary to 4910 in 2017, the latter recording much lesser than the former.

Still, 2017 wildfire is considered to be dreadful as statistically it is the worst in last 59 years.

Meanwhile, the ongoing provincial state of emergency has been extended till August 18.

New Zealand firefighters have extended their helping hands to Canada with an aim to combat the ongoing wildfire in British Columbia.

New Zealand firefighters' support came at a time when around 4000 Canadian firefighters are working to get the situation under control.

On August 3, Fire and Emergency New Zealand took to Twitter to announce their plan of combating the wildfire. "New Zealand firefighters to help combat Canadian wildfires."

(Reporting by Souvik Ghosh)

Images: Official Twitter handle of BC Wildfire.