Canadian wildfires spark evacuations in British Columbia
STORY: Growing wildfires in Canada's westernmost province British Columbia (BC) prompted air quality warnings and evacuation orders on Monday, including the evacuation of a camp housing workers for the Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion project.
There are 193 active wildfires currently burning in BC, including the Flood Falls fire in the south of the province and Battleship Mountain blaze in the northeast, which together have forced around 1,000 people to leave their homes.
In Vancouver, BC's largest city, Environment Canada extended an air quality warning because of high concentrations of fine particulate matter caused by wildfire smoke, some of which was being blown north from the United States.
On Sunday, Vancouver had the worst air quality in the world, according to the World Air Quality Index.
Trans Mountain Corp, owned by the Canadian government, said its 350-person Omahil Camp in Laidlaw, southern BC, was safely evacuated.
There has been no impact on operations of the existing 300,000 barrel per day Trans Mountain pipeline, which ships crude from Alberta's oil sands to the BC coast.
