British Columbia’s forests minister is warning that a thickening curtain of wildfire smoke around Metro Vancouver and other areas of B.C. will worsen in the coming days.
Heavy smoke in the air will continue to be a “major factor” in Vancouver and other areas of the province for the next two to four days, according to Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar, who made the remarks Sept. 3 at a press conference in Victoria, B.C., held in conjunction with Sarah Henderson, the scientific director for environmental health services with the BC Centre for Disease Control.
Parmar said that more than 6,000 lightning strikes in the past week, coupled with dry conditions and high temperatures, have resulted in a sharp increase in new wildfires across the province, with 155 active wildfires currently burning in B.C., of which 58 are classified as out of control….