LYTTON — This week marks the four-year anniversary of a deadly wildfire that destroyed the British Columbia village of Lytton and the community is again under threat.
A fire is burning out of control north of the community, setting off evacuation orders and alerts.
The Izman Creek wildfire near Lytton saw the Thompson-Nicola Regional District issue an evacuation order for three properties and an evacuation alert for nine addresses along Highway 12 around 8 p.m. on Tuesday.
The BC Wildfire Service says the blaze discovered Tuesday has grown rapidly to about 25 hectares in size, closing the highway in both directions for about 60 kilometres as ground and air firefighting crews respond.
The district had earlier issued a local state of emergency for the Blue Sky Country region due to another nearby wildfire, which was burning out of control on Tuesday before being classified as “being held” as of Wednesday morning.
The blazes near Lytton are among about 470 fires burning across Canada, including more than 80 in British Columbia.
About 85 fires are burning in Yukon, where the territorial government has lifted an evacuation alert for the area surrounding Ethel Lake, a four-hour drive north of Whitehorse.
In Alberta, firefighting crews are battling more than 60 wildfires, with 18 designated as out of control.
Statistics from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre show that about 168 of the active wildfires across the country are burning out of control.
There have been 2,554 fires this year, compared to 2,763 by July 2 last year and 3,214 at the same point in 2023.
Monday was the four-year anniversary of a historic fire that tore through Lytton, about 250 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.
That fire killed two people and wiped out much of the village and part of the Lytton First Nation.
It was sparked on June 30, 2021, a day after Lytton set a Canadian temperature record of 49.6 C.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 2, 2025.
The Canadian Press
