Authorities in the Canadian province of British Columbia on Saturday urged tens of thousands of residents to take evacuation orders seriously as “extraordinary and fast-moving” wildfires threatened large parts of the scenic Okanagan Valley, including the city of Kelowna, AFP reported.

The situation in this popular boating and hiking area is “very dynamic,” said Beauvin Ma, BC’s provincial emergency manager.

About 30,000 people have been ordered to evacuate, and another 36,000 are on alert and ready to flee.

“We emphasize the absolute importance of immediate compliance with evacuation orders,” she told a news conference.

“It’s a matter of life and death for the people in these spaces and for the emergency services who sometimes have to go back and ask people to leave,” Bovinn Ma added.

Kelowna, a city of 150,000 people choked by thick smoke, is the latest urban center to fall victim to Canada’s dramatic wildfires, which have burned millions of hectares.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he spoke with British Columbia Premier David Abe about the “quick-moving and incredibly devastating wildfire situation” and pledged federal resources.

Fires are also burning in northern Canada.

After an evacuation order was issued on Wednesday, most people took to the roads and several thousand took an emergency flight, Northwest Territories Environment Minister Shane Thompson said on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday.

According to city officials, about 40 flights carrying about 3,500 passengers from Yellowknife arrived in Calgary, and they provided almost 500 hotel rooms.

Refugees from the far north were received in a small hall for registration and distribution to hotels. They received fruit, cookies and water.

In the Kelowna region, the situation is also critical on the other side of Lake Okanagan, in West Kelowna (population more than 30,000), where authorities say a “significant number” of homes have burned.

The luxury Lake Okanagan Resort, which has hosted high-profile political figures such as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the past, is among the buildings destroyed by the fire.

More than a thousand fires are currently raging across Canada from east to west, with more than 230 in the Northwest Territories and more than 370 in British Columbia.

In recent years, Canada has experienced extreme weather events, the intensity and frequency of which has increased due to global warming.

The country has faced a record forest fire season this year, burning 14 million hectares — about the size of Greece — twice the previous record set in 1989.