BC's chief coroner says at least 486 sudden and unexpected deaths have been reported to the agency during the extreme heat wave in the province. Lisa Lapointe says that's a 195 per cent increase over the approximately 165 deaths that would normally occur in the province over a five-day period. Lapointe says it's still too early to determine the exact cause of death but it's believed likely that the increase is attributable to the extreme weather BC has been experiencing. She also says the number of sudden deaths is preliminary and will increase as coroners enter death reports into the system.

British Columbia's top doctor is encouraging people to continue wearing masks in all indoor places, even as they're no longer mandatory starting Canada Day. Dr. Bonnie Henry says masks remain an important layer of protection until more people have immunity from two doses of vaccine, which nearly 31 per cent of residents aged 12 and over have received. Dr. Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix say in a joint statement that 44 new cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed, for a total of nearly 148,000 cases. Of the 816 active cases, 108 people are hospitalized, and 34 of them are in intensive care.

Evacuation orders and alerts are now posted for three wildfires in the Lillooet, Kamloops and Fort St. John areas, as the wildfire season takes hold. Orders and alerts were issued last night as a fire near Pavilion, just north of Lillooet, flared to 50 square kilometres, while residents of 18 addresses around Sparks Lake, north of Kamloops, have also been ordered out. More than 100 other properties in the same area are under an evacuation alert because of a 23-square kilometre fire there. An alert was also posted by the Peace River Regional District in response to a 30-square kilometre blaze

Metro Vancouver residents are being urged to conserve water as daily consumption across the region reached near-record levels over the weekend. A statement from Metro Vancouver says daily water consumption hit 1.79 billion litres on Sunday, just shy of the all-time high set in 2009, when almost two billion litres were used on a single summer day. Metro Vancouver says that, as of yesterday, drinking water reservoirs are within normal levels, but the continued hot, dry weather, along with unchecked demand for wate, will quickly deplete the region's storage reserves. Lawn watering restrictions a

Vancouver's fire department says resources are being stretched to the breaking point as crews respond to calls related to the heat wave and the overdose crisis, just as the pandemic is winding down. Captain Jonathan Gormick of Vancouver Fire Rescue Services says three times the number of calls are coming in compared with earlier this year, and extra crews are being brought in for critical response roles. He says that in addition to cardiac, heat and overdose emergencies, crews also responded to a fire at Wreck Beach yesterday involving the BC Wildfire Service. Gormick says response times are

The Lower Kootenay Band in British Columbia says a search using ground-penetrating radar has found 182 human remains in unmarked graves at a site close to a former residential school. In a news release, the band says the community of aqam began using the technology last year to search a site near Cranbrook that is close to the former St. Eugene's Mission School, which was operated by the Catholic Church from 1912 until the early 1970s. It says the search found the remains in unmarked graves, some as shallow as 90 centimetres to 1.2 metres. The release says it's believed the remains are those o

The B.C. Wildfire Service is dealing with two out-of-control blazes in the Interior that have prompted evacuation alerts.The McKay Creek fire was discovered Tuesday burning about 23 kilometres north of Lillooet, and has grown to approximately 50 square kilometres as a result of the hot and dry conditions.The Squamish-Lillooet Regional District has issued an evacuation alert for a large area of West Pavilion Road.The Sparks Lake fire covers 23 square kilometres in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District about 15 kilometres north of Kamloops Lake. An evacuation order has been listed for nine prope

Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer, and Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, have issued a joint statement regarding updates on the COVID-19 response in British Columbia. BC had 29 new cases of COVID-19, for a total of 147,578 cases in British Columbia.There are currently 876 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and a further 144,931 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the active cases, 110 individuals are currently hospitalized, 34 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.There have been no new COVID-19 related de

ancouver Police are investigating the murder of a 53-year-old man who was found dead in his east-side home Monday morning. VPD officers were called to the home, near Victoria Drive and East 49 Avenue, shortly before 11 a.m. yesterday, after a body was discovered inside. The victim has been identified as Jin Cai. No arrests have been made. Detectives from VPD’s Major Crime Section continue to investigate and gather evidence This is Vancouver’s ninth homicide victim of 2021.