Ruminations: Lytton, B.C.: Hell on Earth: Fire and Brimstone

"I am crying really ... sometimes I just pinch my skin to make sure it's not a dream, it's really happening ... 30 years working in this job, never seen anything like this madness ..."
Maximiliano Herrera, world weather records expert

"Sydney [Australia] sits at 33 latitude, Lytton [British Columbia, Canada] at 50."
"Temperatures this high should not be occurring here!"
Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, climate scientist, University of New South Wales

Located about 250 km northeast of Vancouver, Lytton broke previous all-time temperature records on three consecutive days, soaring to 46.6C on Sunday, 47.7C Monday and 49.6C on Tuesday. In 1937 it had hit a high temperature of 45C. And then the following day as the heat dome began to move and Lytton experienced brief relief from the searing heat its one thousand residents were forced to evacuate as a wildfire swept into the town and completely obliterated it.

The heat record that Lytton reached is hotter even than the all-time high of 47.2C experienced by Las Vegas, California and 48.3C in Phoenix Arizona, states considerably south of Canada, across the southern border into the United States. According to Mr. Herrera, only 26 countries have been as hot or hotter, ever. Nowhere in Europe or South America has the temperature ever registered that extremely hot, the most extreme high temperature north of 45 degrees latitude.

"I am incredibly overwhelmed by the news of the fire. It happened so fast and is completely devastating almost everyone I've ever known."
"The town itself and surrounding reserves have been severely hit. Fire continues up towards other surrounding reserves between Lytton and Lillooet and Lytton and Shackan."
"Many people in the community expressed concerns that the railways were still up to their usual traffic when the temperatures in Lytton were reaching the high forties [Celsius] this week."
Shianna McAllister, a Nlaka'pamux from the Lytton First Nation

A building in Lytton, B.C., is engulfed in flames on Wednesday. (2 Rivers Remix Society)

The province's Coroners Service received reports of 486 sudden deaths -- according to chief coroner Lisa Lapointe -- between June 25 and the afternoon of June 28, over double their usual number of such reports. When the fire struck, its spread was so rapid that people were forced to sprint off within 15 minutes of having been ordered to leave, taking nothing with them but what they were wearing. In minutes buildings were erupting in flames.

Residents aimed for the nearest towns, in their anxiety to find shelter; Lillooet or Merritt, finding emergency shelters awaiting them. Not quite everyone left, some decided to try to save their homes. Some residents are unaccounted for, the RCMP investigating. A small convoy of vehicles was videoed leaving the area, two separate fires behind them, one a wildfire on the mountain slope above the town, burning the last two weeks, the second in the valley, swiftly consuming the town.

The convoy had to drive a curving road, past burnt-out and still-burning buildings, cars, trucks, recreation vehicles and huge old trees enveloped in flame. Blowing smoke and ash buffeted the vehicles and visibility became so dark with billowing smoke at times it was reduced completely. Apart from the extreme heat and the dry condition of the surrounding forest where electrical storms easily ignite wildfires. there are two railways intersecting either side of Lytton.

The fire is seen burning in the Lytton, B.C., area on Wednesday. Conditions in the area were dangerously dry and windy after the record-breaking heatwave. (Facebook/Edith Loring Kuhanga)

That proximity of crossing railway lines is a danger of itself -- occasionally in hot atmospheres setting fires by sparks set off from the metal wheels of passing trains grinding on the metal rail lines and then lighting dry areas of brush. Meteorologists explained as well, that the unusual weather contributed to thousands of lightning strikes in the interior elevating the risk of wildfires. And dozens spontaneously erupted.

"This is so devastating -- we are all in shock", said Edith Lorin-Kuhanga, administrator at the Stein Valley Nlakapamux School. "Our community members have lost everything. I understand our band office is also gone", she lamented of the carnage brought to the Lytton First Nation reservation. An area spanning about 80 square kilometres in the interior beyond Lytton is raging out of control, according to the B.C. wildfire Service.

Around what is left of Lytton, ("The town has sustained structural damage and 90 percent of the village is burned, including the centre of town", Brad Vis, MP for Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon), electrical, cellphone, rail and highway infrastructure are all badly damaged, hampering both travel and communication. The town's main intersection is littered with burnt building debris; gutted vehicles stand where a village was once located.