British Columbia's wildfire service says this week will bring "increased heat," marking a 15-day trend of hot and dry weather that has fuelled a surge in fire activity. A provincial fire situation report says there's potential for thunderstorms in the Interior, while the northeast returns to a warming trend after a three-day break. Environment Canada maintains heat warnings for parts of the southern Interior from the Fraser Canyon up to the south Cariboo as well as the Okanagan Valley, communities along the Canada-U.S. border and the Kootenay Lake area. The weather office says daytime highs in

Mounties in Kamloops, B.C., say the search continues for a 50-year-old Alberta man lost in the North Thompson River. Kamloops RCMP say officers responded to a call near a sports complex after a man was reportedly "swept away" by the river on Friday. Police say 50-year-old Stan Cappis and a friend jumped into a fast-moving portion of the river to rescue two young people who got caught by the river's current. Staff Sgt. Janelle Shoihet says Cappis' friend and the youths got to shore, but Cappis was "swept away" and was last spotted around a river bend. Police say efforts by emergency personnel a

Vancouver Island University says it has issued a trespass notice to pro-Palestinian protesters, telling them to vacate their encampment on the campus in Nanaimo, B.C., by Monday. The university says in a statement the notice was issued Thursday and if protesters aren't gone by 8 a.m. Monday the university will "take all legal steps necessary to remove them." It says it will start legal action seeking an injunction against the camp and damages from protesters if the camp isn't dismantled by the deadline. It says the camp that has been in place since May 1 has posed "unprecedented challenges" an

Police in Vancouver, B.C., say a three-year investigation has led to the arrests of six people allegedly connected to a "sophisticated" organized crime group. Police say the probe began in November 2021, focusing on a kilogram-level drug-trafficking operation working both domestically and internationally. They say investigators have since seized more than 200 kilograms of illicit drugs as well as seven guns and $500,000 in cash and jewelry. The first phase of the investigation led to the seizure of three guns and 88 kilograms of illicit drugs in December 2022, and of those drugs, police say 72

Police in British Columbia say four people are dead after a highway collision in the southern Interior, part of a spate of multiple-fatality crashes in the province in the past week. RCMP say the crash involving two cars and a tractor trailer near Becks Road in Keremeos shut Highway 3 for eight hours on Wednesday. They say four members of the same extended family, all in the same vehicle, were found dead at the scene of the "terrible tragedy" that took place around 11:30 a.m. It's the latest in a series of at least four crashes in B.C. that have claimed 14 lives in the past week. Four people w

A long-running and fractious dispute between the British Columbia government and the City of Surrey over its police department has ended with a cash agreement. Solicitor General Mike Farnworth says the deal sees the RCMP being replaced by the independent Surrey Police Service on Nov. 29 as part of a $250-million, 10-year agreement. Farnworth says the deal ensures safety for the residents of the Metro Vancouver city and comes with a guarantee that the local government will not levy a police tax to cover transition costs over the next decade. It ends a bitter two-year process of name-calling and

RCMP say a family of three, including a baby, has been killed in a head-on crash with a tractor trailer in Agassiz, B.C. Police say it happened early Tuesday morning on Lougheed Highway just outside the community. The two adults in the vehicle were pronounced dead at the scene, and the infant was airlifted to hospital but died a few hours later. Police say alcohol or drugs are not suspected as a cause and they are working with a collision reconstruction team to determine what led to the crash. The driver in the semi was not injured. RCMP Sgt. Andy Lot, Agassiz's detachment commander, says in a

There has been a "major failure" in a well in Merritt, B.C., prompting the city to ask its residents to stop all non-essential water use. The city says in a statement that the failure is in the Voght well and affects the city's water distribution system. The statement says residents need to conserve water by all means possible so it can maintain its fire protection services. No lawn watering is permitted until a pump is repaired. It says the city's water remains potable and asks that residents be patient while repairs are underway. The failure comes as a heat warning remains up in the southern

More daily temperature records have fallen in British Columbia, with temperatures forecast to remain in the high 30s for the rest of the week in much of the southern Interior. A summary from Environment Canada shows 27 daily high temperature records fell across the province Monday, from Whistler, to Trail in the southeast, Smithers in the northwest, and Campbell River on Vancouver Island. The Lytton, B.C., area was a hot spot with a daily high of 42.4 C, breaking the old record of 39.4 set in 1952. In Pemberton, B.C., north of Whistler, the mercury hit 39.1 C, while in Osoyoos, B.C., the new r