'Trees going up like Roman candles' as wildfire season starts early in B.C.

Susanne Langan first noticed the Burgess Creek wildfire from her home in British Columbia's Cariboo region on Saturday afternoon as a distant, thin column of smoke.

Susanne Langan first noticed the Burgess Creek wildfire from her home in British Columbia's Cariboo region on Saturday afternoon as a distant, thin column of smoke.

But as winds picked up that night, the flames became more aggressive.

“I could see lots of trees going up like Roman candles. There was certainly lots of smoke rising from it,” said Langan, who works as an equipment operator at Mount Polley Mine, about 50 kilometres north of Williams Lake.

Langan, who says she has lived “off the grid” in the area for 39 years, is among a handful of Cariboo residents put under evacuation alert and told to be ready to leave at short notice, as fears of an early start to the B.C. and Alberta wildfire seasons materialized.

In addition to the 1,600-hectare Burgess Creek fire about 600 kilometres north of Vancouver, the tiny town of Endako, a further 400 kilometres northwest, is also under an evacuation alert, threatened by a blaze that the BC Wildfire Service said on Sunday was less than a kilometre west of the town.

Mark Parker, chair of B.C.'s Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako, said the evacuation alert for Endako was issued Sunday after 60 km/h winds began pushing the flames toward the community of a few dozen homes that sit on the north side of Highway 16.

“That fire started on Saturday afternoon, and at that time, the wind was blowing away from the community of Endako,” he said.