Residents of a Canadian village which recorded the country’s highest ever temperature, 49.6C (121.3F), have been forced to flee by a wildfire. From a report: A small B.C. village that endured the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Canada for days on end this week was engulfed in flames Wednesday night and residents were forced to flee, many without their belongings. Mayor Jan Polderman says he told everyone to leave Lytton, as a fire rapidly spread into the community of about 250 people. He signed the official evacuation order at 6 p.m. PT. “It’s dire. The whole town is on fire,” Polderman told CBC News. “It took, like, a whole 15 minutes from the first sign of smoke to, all of a sudden, there being fire everywhere.” He said he told residents to head for the nearby community of Boston Bar, and was on his way there himself. A reception centre has also been set up in Merritt to the east, and other residents have taken shelter in Lillooet to the north. “At the First Nation band office, the fire was a wall about three, four feet high coming up to the fence line. I drove through town and it was just smoke, flames, the wires were down,” Polderman said. Video captured by residents rushing out of town show numerous structures on fire in every direction.

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Source: Slashdot – Canadian Village Lytton Evacuated as Mayor Says ‘the Whole Town is on Fire’