An out-of-control wildfire in northeastern British Columbia has triggered the province's first evacuation of this year's fire season. The Peace River Regional District declared a state of local emergency and issued an evacuation order for an area near Chetwynd, B.C., last night. The 50-hectare Wildmare Creek fire has also prompted an evacuation alert covering homes directly west of the community, with the district saying there's "potential danger to life" and residents should be ready to leave on short notice. The Ministry of Transportation's DriveBC information service says a 10-kilometre str

The BC Wildfire Service has announced a five-month open fire ban covering much of the province's Interior, as fire season gets off to an early start. The ban on Category 3 fires in the Kamloops fire centre will run from May 3 to Oct. 11 and will prohibit people burning three or more fires on a property at the same time, or any single fire burning a pile larger than two metres in height or three metres in width. Grass burns bigger than 0.2 hectares will also be banned, the service says. Areas covered by the ban include the Lillooet, Kamloops, Merritt, Vernon and Penticton fire zones. Drought co

A man has been killed in a stabbing in White Rock, B.C., and police say there are "apparent similarities" to another knife attack in the same area two days earlier. RCMP say the latest incident happened late Tuesday, when a man was reported to have been stabbed near the White Rock Pier. Police say the victim died at the scene, and a search of the area did not turn up the suspect, who is described as a black male, five feet 11 inches tall, wearing a hat and a grey hoodie with the hood over the hat. The fatal stabbing follows an attack late Sunday also near White Rock Pier in which a person was

Police in British Columbia say United States authorities searching for a pair of missing kayakers have found a body in the San Juan Islands of Washington state. RCMP spokesman Cpl. James Grandy says searchers south of the border have not yet identified the person as one of the missing kayakers. Grandy says only one body has been located in the search. The Sidney/North Saanich RCMP has said two men went missing Saturday while kayaking between D'Arcy Island and Island View Beach, just north of Victoria. They said 36-year-old Daniel MacAlpine and twenty-six-year-old Nicholas West were in a teal b

A baby in a stroller survived being struck and dragged for two blocks while it was lodged in the front of a vehicle in Squamish, B.C. Mounties say they received multiple calls that a vehicle had hit a pedestrian pushing a baby in the stroller at a crosswalk Monday night. Investigators say the driver fled the scene in the vehicle but was found approximately two blocks away with the baby still inside the stroller, lodged into the front of the vehicle. Police say both the pedestrian and baby have non-life-threatening injuries and are receiving medical attention. The driver was arrested and police

RCMP say two kayakers are missing in waters near Sidney, B.C., located just north of Victoria, and a search is underway. The Sidney/North Saanich RCMP is asking for the public's help locating two men who went missing while kayaking from D'Arcy Island to View Beach on Saturday afternoon. The RCMP say the men were in a teal blue fibreglass, two-person, tandem kayak. They are identified as Daniel MacAlpine, 36, and twenty-six-year-old Nicholas West. RCMP say members of Central Saanich Police Department and Peninsula Emergency Measures Organization search and rescue are involved in the search, and

The Abbotsford Police Department says it is investigating a fatal collision involving an unidentified female on Highway 11, known locally as the Abbotsford-Mission highway. Police say the collision occurred Saturday night in the 5300 block of Highway 11. Police say they were called to the area at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday where they found the victim, who appeared to have been seriously injured and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police say area roads were closed temporarily to allow members of the RCMP's Integrated Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Services to gather evidence and speak w

The British Columbia Coroners Service says it will hold an inquest into the death of a man who died in a hail of police gunfire after starting a shootout with RCMP officers in Kamloops. The service says the inquest will begin on May 6 at the Kamloops law courts to determine the facts related to the death of 35-year-old Eugene Marcano, who was shot and killed by Mounties on Sept. 14, 2018. A report from B.C.'s Independent Investigations Office in 2019 says Marcano initiated a shootout with Kamloops RCMP officers, who had responded to a call about a truck and trailer parked in a remote location

British Columbia's Environment Ministry says a 2.5-million-litre effluent spill from a fibreboard factory in Quesnel doesn't pose any immediate risk to public safety. It says in a statement that Monday's spill from the WestPine Medium-Density Fibreboard plant into a gravel pit has been assessed and no waterways have been affected. Factory owner West Fraser says in a statement that a valve on a failed line between the factory and a pulp mill has been replaced, and the cleanup effort is complete. West Fraser spokeswoman Joyce Wagenaar says in the statement that the effluent is within B.C.'s wate