{"id":36335,"date":"2026-08-10T11:04:58","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T06:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=36335"},"modified":"2026-08-10T11:04:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T06:04:58","slug":"woman-dies-in-fast-moving-b-c-wildfire-as-thousands-evacuate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=36335","title":{"rendered":"Woman dies in fast-moving B.C. wildfire as thousands evacuate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/ph\/st\/th\/4151786332476\/2026\/i\/17863384059971\/v1.5\/Woman-dies-in-fast-moving-BC-wildfire-as-thousands-evacuate.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><span class=\"story_dl\">Aug. 9 (UPI) &#8212;<\/span> Authorities in western Canada announced Sunday that a woman died while evacuating her home as several wildfires tear through southern British Columbia, where a state of emergency was declared over the weekend and thousands have been forced to evacuate.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/wildfiresituation.nrs.gov.bc.ca\/incidents?fireYear=2026&amp;incidentNumber=K51490&amp;source=map\" target=\"_blank\">Bald Range fire<\/a>, raging south of Kelowna, is one of more than 100 blazes burning in the province, mostly in the south, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/wildfiresituation.nrs.gov.bc.ca\/dashboard\" target=\"_blank\">provincial information<\/a>, which shows 46 were labeled out of control. Nearly four dozen evacuation orders and 51 alerts have been issued.\n<\/p>\n<p>At 13,618 hectares, the Bald Range fire was among the largest and was labeled &#8220;out of control,&#8221; meaning officials expect it to spread, as of early Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirmed Sunday the death of an 80-year-old woman who suddenly died while attempting to flee her Meadow Valley home with a member of her family because of the fast-moving fire.<\/p>\n<p>Though the B.C. Coroners Service will be conducting an investigation to confirm the nature of the woman&#8217;s death, &#8220;police believe her death to be a result of the wildfire,&#8221; the RCMP said in <a href=\"https:\/\/rcmp.ca\/en\/bc\/summerland\/news\/2026\/08\/4355754\" target=\"_blank\">a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am deeply saddened by the news from the RCMP that a woman lost her life during the Bald Range wildfire evacuation,&#8221; B.C. Premier David Eby said in a statement.\n<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My heart goes out to her family, friends, neighbors and all those who knew her and will miss her.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The RCMP said the fire was reported to authorities at 5:15 p.m. PDT Friday. About eight hours later, they received a report of a sudden death from a witness in Meadow Valley.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This wildfire has been a deeply traumatic event for all those in the region,&#8221; Supt. Beth McAndie, officer in charge of the Penticton South Okanagan Similkameen Regional RCMP Detachment, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Officers are working closely and providing full supports to the impacted family, who are asking for privacy at this time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It was the only known wildfire fatality in B.C. as of early Monday.<\/p>\n<p><emb><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Global National: Aug. 9, 2026 | Evacuation zone expands as BC wildfires display extreme behaviour\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/P9LkfEkMLk4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/emb><\/p>\n<p>Eby declared <a href=\"https:\/\/news.gov.bc.ca\/releases\/2026PREM0032-000932\" target=\"_blank\">a state of emergency<\/a> on Saturday. Moreth 12,000 residents of Summerland were under evacuation orders, as were another 8,000 in nearby Peachland.<\/p>\n<p>The extent of the damage from the Bald Range fire was not immediately clear, but Eby said Saturday that &#8220;there have been significant losses of home and property.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To people in affected areas: If you are under an evacuation order, leave immediately,&#8221; he said in a statement. &#8220;These orders are issued to save lives. The conditions of this fire are extremely dangerous and are changing minute by minute.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aug. 9 (UPI) &#8212; Authorities in western Canada announced Sunday that a woman died while evacuating her home as several wildfires tear through southern British Columbia, where a state of emergency was declared over the weekend and thousands have been forced to evacuate. The Bald Range fire, raging south of Kelowna, is one of more&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/ph\/st\/th\/4151786332476\/2026\/i\/17863384059971\/v1.5\/Woman-dies-in-fast-moving-BC-wildfire-as-thousands-evacuate.jpg?lg=5","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}