More than 500 homes or other structures have been destroyed or damaged by wildfires in British Columbia this year, in a level of devastation comparable to some of the worst recent fire seasons.
While the area of 4,300 square kilometres burned by the more than 1,000 fires so far this year has only been a fraction of the area burned in other years — such as 2023 when a record 29,000 square kilometres burned — the structural losses have been piling up.
By comparison, the B.C. government said about 600 structures were destroyed or damaged in 2023, including about 400 homes, many of them around Okanagan Lake, where losses have again been concentrated.
In 2017, 509 structures were destroyed, including 229 homes.
The worst recent human toll was in 2023, when six firefighters were killed. An 80-year-old-woman is the only known fatality this year. RCMP say she died suddenly while she was evacuating her home in Meadow Valley, west of Summerland, ahead of the Bald Range fire.
Here's how the 2026 destruction has been accumulating:
THE BALD RANGE FIRE
The Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen says the fire is still burning out of control west of Okanagan Lake and has destroyed or damaged about 150 properties; 40 in Summerland and more than 100 in other areas, including the community of Faulder, which has been largely razed.
THE BRADLEY COMPLEX
This group of fires at the northern end of Okanagan Lake near Vernon has been declared held. The chief of the Okanagan Indian Band says about 230 homes, including about 30 homes of band members and 200 non-band homes on its land, were destroyed by the Bradley Creek blaze when it swept through the area on Aug. 1.
THE BIG BAR COMPLEX
The Thompson-Nicola Regional District says structures have been destroyed on about 120 properties outside Clinton, with the massive 1,600-square-kilometre Pear Lake fire still burning out of control. The district estimates losses could total several hundred structures.
BRUNSWICK COMPLEX
The Fraser Valley Regional District says seven structures, including four homes or cabins and three other structures, were destroyed by the Brunswick complex of fires that threatened the community of Boston Bar. It continues to burn out of control, almost seven weeks after it was detected.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Darryl Dyck
