Wildfires spread in Western Canada as temperatures rise, lightning strikes

New wildfires broke out in Western Canada and forests continued to burn in Ontario as Canada battled what Prime Minister Mark Carney called one of the

most intense wildfire seasons on record.



Nearly 34,000 lightning strikes over the past week led to a series of fires and evacuation orders in the southern part of British Columbia. As of Friday morning, there were 25 evacuation orders and 90 active wildfires in the province, which warned that warming and drying conditions could lead to growth of existing wildfires.



"The weather forecast is far from favorable. There is no significant help from Mother Nature whatsoever in the foreseeable future," said Incident Commander Hugh Murdoch of a cluster of fires near Kimberley, B.C., 520 km (323 miles) from Vancouver.



Wildfires fueled by intense heat and lightning attributed to warmer temperatures have burned remote forests across Canada this summer. Last week, smoke drifted to major U.S. East Coast and Midwestern cities.