British Columbia's wildfire-driven provincial state of emergency will expire at midnight September 15th - it was declared on July 7th, and extended four times over nine weeks.
Despite lifting the state of emergency, officials are reminding everyone that fire season is not over yet.
As of this morning, 153 are wildfires burning in BC, with 11 evacuation orders affecting approximately 3,152 individuals, plus 23 evacuation alerts affecting approximately 5,762 people. During this wildfire season, approximately 65,000 people evacuated from their homes.
The provincial state of emergency is an extraordinary measure taken to ensure public safety and the co-ordinated response to this summer's wildfire season, which saw more hectares burned than at any other time in the province's history.
Given the weather forecast and the remarkable efforts of the BC Wildfire Service to contain and extinguish fires, the Province now is in a position to allow the state of emergency to expire and return to a standard emergency response.
The Canadian Forces will be demobilizing personnel who have been assisting with response efforts this season. The Province of British Columbia thanks the Canadian Armed Forces for their support.
The last provincial declaration of state of emergency before the current wildfire situation was issued in August 2003 to deal with wildfires.