BC Premier David Eby is telling tourists not to travel to the province as wildfires burn out of control..“At this time, we’re grateful that people are mostly following our call to not travel to certain areas and to stay out of the way of emergency crews so they can do their jobs," Eby said.."We are also seeing more and more people evacuated – and access to accommodation is becoming increasingly tight in the interior. We need to ensure that accommodation is available for people who are evacuated.". Eby tells people not to travel to BCBC RCMP officers watch billowing smoke from nearby wildfire at a checkpoint in the province. .Eby said BC is facing the worst wildfire season ever experienced.."Over the past 24 hours, the situation has evolved rapidly and we are in for an extremely challenging situation in the days ahead," Eby said.."There are numerous fires across the province threatening communities. Thousands of people are under evacuation orders, and tens of thousands more are on evacuation alert.".Eby said that given these fast-moving conditions, the Province of British Columbia is declaring a provincial state of emergency, under the authority of the Emergency Program Act..Eby said it was to ensure the province is in a position to rapidly access any tools it needs to support communities as the situation evolves..“A provincial state of emergency allows the Province to enact emergency orders. Emergency orders could include travel restrictions to specific areas if people do not respect our calls to avoid non-essential travel to the central Interior and southeastern BC," Eby said..“We’re calling on all British Columbians to be alert, listen to local officials and follow evacuation orders. We will get through this together.”.READ MORE: BC government declares a province-wide state of emergency.On Friday night, the province of British Columbia said it declared a Provincial State of Emergency, under the authority of the Emergency Program Act, to support ongoing response and recovery efforts caused by wildfire..A Provincial State of Emergency allows the province to enact Emergency Orders, including travel restrictions to specific areas if needed..The latest stretch of evacuations were also announced by the Central Okanagan Emergency Operations just before midnight on Friday..Shannon Lake Area and Smith Creek Agricultural Area to Powers Creek (Glen Canyon) and the North Glenrosa neighbourhood received the alert to get out of the communities..Officials said this alert is being issued proactively as the Emergency Operation Centre continued its pre-planning work overnight.
