Over 20,000 flee wildfires as British Columbia declares state of emergency

Over 20,000 people have been forced to flee fast-moving wildfires raging across western Canada, prompting British Columbia to declare a state of emergency on Saturday as officials warned of "explosive" conditions that could put more communities at risk.

Residents were evacuated from Summerland, home to about 12,000 people, and Peachland, home to 8,000, along the Okanagan Lake.

The so-called "Bald Range Fire" was discovered on Friday and nearly doubled in size overnight into Saturday, forcing even emergency officials to flee.

“I had to leave the Emergency Operations Centre to come and get my family to leave this area. We’re heading south,” Erick Thompson, an emergency official with the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen said in a video posted early Saturday.

In a news conference on Saturday, Premier David Eby said a firefighting official compared the fire to a "bomb going off".