Hundreds of British Columbians watching wildfires closely as they burn close to communities

More than 600 properties are on evacuation order in B.C., while 5,700 properties are under evacuation alert as 87 wildfires burn in the province.

Four wildfires have started in the last 24 hours.

There are four wildfires of note, meaning they are generating more interest than other fires.

The Brunswick Complex wildfires continue to burn near Boston Bar and evacuation orders and alerts remain in place for that region. That complex is made up of the Ainslie Creek fire and the Brunswick Creek fire.

The Matthew Creek fire, burning near Kimberley, continues to burn out of control and the City of Kimberley remains under an evacuation alert.

The Tower Creek fire is burning southeast of the Matthew Creek fire.

Kevin Skrepnek, manager of Community and Emergency Services with the BC Wildfire Service, said crews will be undertaking damage assessment to determine how many structures have been impacted by the fires.

Kurtis Isfeld, director, Fire Centre Operations for the BC Wildfire Service, said crews are ready to battle the fires as needed.

“It really comes down to our response starts with preparedness,” he said.

“So as (Minister Ravi Parmar) alluded to, we monitor the conditions very closely as those conditions give us signals that they’re going to change.

“We’re a very mobile organization and we will preposition the required resources to where they need to be across the province. We take great pride in our initial attack, and an aggressive initial attack.”

Many areas of B.C. are under a yellow air quality warning, while the North Peace River region is under an orange air quality warning.