Fire by the numbers

Photo: BC Wildfire Service

The Wentworth Creek wildfire is burning NW of Williams Lake.

This is the third worst fire season in B.C. since records began and it is far from over, according to Kevin Skrepnek of the BC Wildfire Service.

The numbers so far include:

• 150 wildfires currently burning
• 13 new fires started on Saturday
• 820 wildfires so far this season
• 426,000 hectares burned
• $172.05 million spent on the BC Wildfire Service's response
• 4,000 personnel fighting the fires (including 750 from out of province)
• 200 aircraft and 1,500 pieces of heavy machinery being used to fight the fires
• 6,000 evacuees from wildfires across the province

During a news conference on Sunday, Skrepnek said temperatures in the Southern Interior were expected to climb as high as 40 C later in the week.

Skrepnek said this year would be part of an "historic crisis" and could surpass the 1961 fire season when 483,000 hectares burned. The worst year was in 1988 when 855,000 hectares burned.

He said smoke affecting southern areas, including the South Okanagan and Similkameen regions, was from a fire burning in Washington state.