State of emergency declared in Canada, as wildfires displace 5,000 residents

British Columbia has declared a state of emergency as wildfires threaten to destroy more homes around the city of West Kelowna.

The province’s Premier David Eby has warned that the situation is evolving rapidly and that the days ahead will be “extremely challenging”.

"Emergency orders could include travel restrictions to specific areas if people do not respect our calls to avoid non-essential travel," Eby said.

The wildfires in the McDougall Creek wildfire have grown from 64 to 6,800 hectares in 24 hours and some 4,800 people are now under evacuation orders.

Moreover, about 22,000 people in Canada’s Northwest Territories have been displaced because of another huge wildfire. That amounts to roughly half of the population in the area.

Residents have been leaving the area by air and road, in an effort to escape a wildfire moving towards the outskirts of the city.

No deaths have been reported so far.

The airspace around Kelowna International Airport has now been closed to everything other than aerial firefighters.