Canada wildfires: State of emergency declared on Vancouver Island as nation battles worst fires in decades

A fast-moving wildfire near Port Alberni has triggered a local state of emergency on Vancouver Island, forcing hundreds of residents to evacuate as flames consume more than 21.5 square kilometers of forest.

The Mount Underwood wildfire, discovered Monday(August 11), is burning out of control and has already become the largest wildfire on Vancouver Island. By Wednesday afternoon, the blaze had cut off the main road between Port Alberni and the coastal community of Bamfield, knocking out power to hundreds of residents and businesses.

“This is unusual fire behavior for wildfires on Vancouver Island,” the BC Wildfire Service said in a Wednesday update to CTVNews. “We are in the midst of a severe drought, and the island has seen very little rain since the end of June.”

Evacuation orders and alerts

The Clayoquot Regional District has ordered evacuations for hundreds of properties along the east side of the Alberni Inlet, while the neighboring Cowichan Valley Regional District has issued evacuation orders for a rural area between Port Alberni and Nitinat.

In Port Alberni itself, the Cameron Heights neighborhood is under evacuation alert, with residents urged to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.

Karley Desrosiers, a fire information officer with the Coastal Fire Centre, said the fire is not currently threatening Port Alberni, Bamfield, or Youbou directly, but conditions are ripe for further spread.

“We are expecting further growth today, primarily on the east flank,” Desrosiers said. “We can attribute that to the dry conditions, high daytime temperatures, wind, and slope, all of the factors driving growth on this fire.”

Largest fire in years

The Mount Underwood blaze is displaying rank-4 and rank-5 fire behavior, meaning it is burning at a highly vigorous to extremely vigorous rate. Terrain challenges are making firefighting efforts even more difficult.

Night vision-equipped helicopters and an air tanker attacked the blaze overnight Tuesday, but by morning the flames were still just 12 kilometers from Port Alberni.

The wildfire is also burning less than 20 kilometers southwest of the Wesley Ridge fire, which forced the evacuation of several hundred homes last week. Some properties in the Little Qualicum Village area remain under evacuation order due to that blaze, believed to have been human-caused.

Smoke blankets the region

Environment Canada has issued a special air quality statement for inland Vancouver Island as smoke from the Mount Underwood fire lingers. The advisory warns that health risks increase as smoke levels rise, urging vulnerable populations, including older adults, pregnant people, young children, and those with chronic health conditions, to limit outdoor activity.

The wildfire’s cause remains under investigation. As of Wednesday afternoon, approximately 90 wildfires were burning across British Columbia, with 10 classified as out of control.