700 dead and counting: Canada struggles to cope with unprecedented heatwave
![]() 1259 Sunday, 04 July, 2021, 11:40 The unprecedented heatwave baking the Pacific Northwest has claimed as many as 700 lives over the last one week in Canada alone, according to officials, while two people were reported to have died due to a raging wildfire triggered by the heat in the village of Lytton in British Columbia, which had sizzled under a record high temperature of 49.6°C earlier in the week. It has been reported that one of more than a hundred wildfires currently peppering the heatwave-hit western part of Canada, especially British Columbia (BC), has decimated about 90% of Lytton. The escalating crisis sent Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau into an emergency huddle with the country’s incident response group as they discussed ways to combat it, focusing on British Columbia. Due to the challenging conditions in and around Lytton due to the wildfire, investigators have been unable to confirm the two fatalities in the village. After Lytton witnessed three days of record temperatures from Sunday to Tuesday, its residents were evacuated on Wednesday, with nearly 1,000 inhabitants in and around the area being moved to safety. The BC Wildfire Service classified the wildfire situation as “out of control” and estimated it covered an area of around 6,400 hectares. BC chief coroner Lisa Lapointe told reporters that 719 sudden deaths were recorded in the province in the week ending July 1 – which is three times higher than the average tally. “We are releasing this information as it is believed likely the extreme weather that BC has experienced in the past week is a significant contributing factor to the increased number of deaths,” Lapointe said. “This number is preliminary and subject to increase as additional reported deaths are entered into our system,” she added. On June 30, the estimate for a five-day period was 486 deaths. The BC Wildfire Service said there were 136 ongoing wildfires in the province with nine of them being considered of note since they posed a danger to public safety. As Trudeau held a meeting with the emergency task force, air support along with personnel were also readied in the city of Edmonton in the province of Alberta for support and possible evacuation of those impacted by the wildfires. ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Ukrainian National Security Colonel Killed in Kiev (video)
287Yesterday, 14:22New Mexico flash flooding sweeps entire house away, prompts rescues (video)
53309.07.2025, 10:10Forest fires rage in Catalonia, thousands evacuated (video)
68808.07.2025, 16:47"We are shocked"- Peskov on the suicide of a dismissed minister
66408.07.2025, 14:47Texas flood death toll rises to 104 (photo, video)
50608.07.2025, 13:11Deaths and injuries in the shooting in Philadelphia (video)
45508.07.2025, 11:16Iran says death toll from Israeli attacks nears 1060
57008.07.2025, 00:22Owners of pet lion arrested after it jumped a wall and attacked a woman and two children in Pakistan (video)
53507.07.2025, 23:32