Hundreds of residents living along a stretch of Highway 97 told to evacuate

Hundreds of residents living along a stretch of Highway 97 between Kamloops and Vernon have been told to evacuate as the White Rock Lake wildfire advances.

There's concern that winds today could fan the 325-square kilometre fire, so the roughly 600 residents of the community of Falkland were ordered out last night, along with residents in the Westwold and Monte Lake area.

The number of wildfires in BC has grown significantly this week to almost 300 and the wildfire service says nearly 42 per cent of those blazes remain out of control.

There is some positive news as evacuation orders issued last month in response to the Brenda Creek wildfire west of Peachland were lifted this morning for 41 properties.