The Ainslie Creek wildfire north of Boston Bar, B.C., is shown in this handout photo provided by BC Wildfire Service, on July 7, 2026. The Canadian Press/Handout – BC Wildfire Service
A raging wildfire complex near Boston Bar, B.C., has destroyed a number of buildings and has grown significantly to almost 200 square kilometres.
Video posted online by Shayne Findlay, the operator of Blue Lake Resort, shows structures left in charred ruins, although he says the main lodge was spared.
“That’s where the manager’s house was,” Findlay says as he points to a pile of smoking rubble.
Findlay then turns the camera to a blackened tree with a split in its trunk, flames still burning inside. “Let’s not stand next to that one,” he says in the video posted Wednesday.
Overnight, the Fraser Valley Regional District upgraded an evacuation alert to an order to leave for about 40 properties.
The Thompson-Nicola Regional District meanwhile issued an evacuation alert for about 61 properties, telling residents to be ready to leave on short notice, in the area near Prospect Creek.
Hundreds of properties in the Fraser Canyon area were already under evacuation orders and alerts as the Brunswick Creek and Ainslie Creek wildfires burn out of control on both sides of the Fraser River.
The BC Wildfire Service says the Ainslie Creek blaze has grown to an estimated 170 square kilometres in size, while the Brunswick Creek fire is measured at 26 square kilometres.
The combined size of the two fires, now known as the Brunswick Complex, is up 72 percent from the 114 square kilometres reported Wednesday.
Highway 1 through the region remains closed while crews say strong winds have driven the fire’s growths in the last two days, with more gusts are in the forecast for the next several days “with no appreciable rain in the short-term forecast.”
The wildfire service says more than 200 firefighters are assigned to the Brunswick Complex, with support from 14 helicopters and about 60 structure protection personnel.
