Wildfires are on the rise in the Canadian province of

Wildfires are on the rise in the Canadian province of

Facing such a situation, Bowinn Ma, provincial minister of emergency management and climate preparedness, said federal personnel will join the teams currently fighting nearly 380 active fires.

The number of highly visible, threatening or potentially damaging “notable wildfires” rose from 17 to 20 overnight, CTV News reported.

The Territory’s Drought Bulletin indicates that nearly the entire region suffers from drought conditions of at least level three out of a maximum of five, with the Fort Nelson Basin in the Northeast, the Bulkley Basin and all of Vancouver Island being in the lowest most severe category.

While wildfires were largely concentrated in northeastern British Columbia earlier this season, most notable fires are now clustered in the Bulkley-Nechako and Cariboo regions of the central interior, between Prince George and Terrace, the source said.

The fires so far this season have burned nearly 5,000 square miles of forest cover, dwarfing the 10-year average of about 760 in the same period last year, according to an update from the province’s forest fire department released on Thursday.

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