Wildfires threaten western Canada city as far north evacuated

Wildfires bore down on two Canadian cities Friday, with firefighters in the west bracing for another "scary" night as stunned refugees from the far north began arriving at shelters after their entire city was evacuated.

The two fronts in British Columbia and the Northwest Territories are just the latest in a summer of devastating wildfires across the country that have forced tens of thousands from their homes and left millions of acres scorched.

The blazes have caused "terrible loss," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters after meeting evacuees from Yellowknife, capital of the Northwest Territories, as they arrived in Edmonton, Alberta, hundreds of miles (kilometers) to the south with no idea when they may return home again.

Meanwhile the premier of western British Colombia, David Eby, declared a state of emergency there late Friday.

The announcement came as the fire burning west of Kelowna, a town of 150,000 people in the Okanagan Valley, exploded a hundred fold in size to 6,800 hectares over the past day.

Officials described firefighters being forced to pull back and some becoming trapped behind lines while making "heroic efforts" to rescue residents.

"We fought hard last night to protect our community," local fire chief Jason Brolund told a briefing on Friday.

"A significant number of structures were lost," he said, but no injuries or fatalities were reported.

"It was like 100 years of firefighting all at once, in one night," he said, adding that he expected "another scary night tonight" under an eerie glow of the fires.

Thousands of households on Kelowna's west side were ordered evacuated or told late Thursday to be ready to leave at a moment's notice.

"The situation is unpredictable...