British Columbia Ends Wildfire State of Emergency Two Days Early

British Columbia ended its province-wide wildfire state of emergency at 3:25 PM on August 27 — two days ahead of the scheduled August 29 extension deadline — after emergency management officials advised the declaration's powers were no longer needed. The state of emergency, first declared August 8 as the Bald Range fire and other blazes forced fast-moving evacuations, was never actually invoked to exercise emergency powers, according to Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Minister Kelly Greene. Ending the declaration has no effect on the roughly 206 wildfires still burning provincewide or on the evacuation orders, evacuation alerts and local states of emergency that individual regional districts and First Nations continue to maintain.