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Hundreds evacuated from B.C. wildfires

VANCOUVER — Firefighters battling nearly 300 wildfires blazing in B.C. are praying for cooler weather, but not the kind of cooler weather forecast for Wednesday and Thursday.
Wildfires 20100817
Bulldozers build a firebreak in a clearcut at the Pelican Complex fire

VANCOUVER — Firefighters battling nearly 300 wildfires blazing in B.C. are praying for cooler weather, but not the kind of cooler weather forecast for Wednesday and Thursday.

A cold front moving across the province is packing extreme winds and lightning — but no rain — and officials in the Cariboo Fire Centre worry the conditions could push forest fire activity in that Interior region right off the six-point scale of severity.

They say several blazes grew significantly on Tuesday, prompting additional evacuation orders within the huge Pelican Complex of fires, the Tsacha Lake blaze and around Heckman Pass, near Tweedsmuir Provincial Park.

An additional 155 families near the Bull Canyon fire around Alexis Creek, west of Williams Lake, have been evacuated while residents in 306 homes in and around Anahim Lake, 200 kilometres west of Alexis Creek, have been ordered out because of the Heckman Pass blaze.

Nearly 450 properties sandwiched between the two new evacuations have been placed on alert, while 25 homes on the edge of the Tsacha Lake wildfire, north of Anahim Lake, have been added to evacuation orders there.

At last count, 279 forest fires had charred B.C. woodlands, with 71 per cent of the province at high or extreme risk for forest fires -- more than double the risk at this time last year.