The list of communities on evacuation alert or order is growing rapidly in the southern Interior.

The District of 100 Mile House has been put on evacuation alert because of the nearby Flat Lake wildfire, which is 2,000 hectares in size. That fire was caused by lightning six days ago.

Another 1,074 properties southwest of 100 Mile are also on evacuation order because of that same fire. The order from the Cariboo Regional District affect homes between Flat Lake and Green Lake. Meanwhile, another 3,086 properties southeast of 100 Mile are on evacuation alert, between Horse Lake and Sheridan Lake – meaning most of the southern Cariboo is on evacuation alert or order from wildfires.

The Thompson-Nicola Regional District has also put 199 properties on evacuation alert between 70 Mile House and Chasm because of the Flat Lake fire. A map of that evacuation alert zone can be found here.

A new evacuation order has also been issued today by the CRD for 482 properties along the southern part of Mahood Lake and further east to Mahood Lake. That’s because of the South of Canim Lake fire, which is estimated to be 1,651 hectares in size. It started on June 30 and was suspected to have been caused by lightning.

Highway 97 is closed from seven kilometres north of Clinton to five km south of 100 Mile, and all wildfire evacuees listed above are asked to go to Williams Lake for emergency social services, which is set up at 51A Fourth Avenue South.

A full map of properties on evacuation alert or order in the CRD can be found here.

Meanwhile, the Columbia-Shuswap Regional District has now placed Seymour Arm on evacuation alert, on the north end of Shuswap Lake, because of the Hunakwa Lake wildfire burning southeast of the community. That fire was last mapped at 230 hectares. Details of that alert from the CSRD can be seen here.

In the past 24 hours, the TNRD has also issued an evacuation alert for 50 properties east of Ashcroft because of the Tremont Creek wildfire – which has also been called the Glossy Mountain fire. That blaze is 780 hectares in size, and details can be found here.

On Wednesday afternoon, the TNRD also put five properties on evacuation alert northwest of Merritt because of the Whiterock Lake wildfire, which is currently estimated at 300 hectares. That alert can be found here.

Closer to Kamloops, there remains 289 evacuation orders and more than 550 evacuation alerts near the Sparks Lake wildfire. Near the Embleton Mountain wildfire, 132 properties in Whitecroft are evacuated, while the Mountain Resort Municipality of Sun Peaks is on evacuation alert, and so too are 170 properties near Heffley Lake.