A FAST-MOVING wildfire has destroyed about 230 homes in an indigenous community in western Canada, according to officials, making it one of the country’s most destructive fires in recent years.

Chief Dan Wilson of the Okanagan Indian Band said the Bradley Creek wildfire had devastated much of an indigenous reserve near Vernon, 275 miles north-east of Vancouver.

“It was hard to recognise my community from the air with all the structures and the forest gone,” Mr Wilson said after surveying the area by helicopter on Tuesday.

The destruction ranks among Canada’s worst recent wildfires. A 2024 blaze in Jasper destroyed about 350 homes, while the 2023 McDougall Creek wildfire destroyed about 200.

Mr Wilson described the devastation as “surreal” and said it was one of the darkest days in the band’s history.

The fire erupted on Friday night and was driven by wind gusts of up to 71 miles per hour.

“The fire spread so fast that some of our members only had five minutes to evacuate,” he said.

Among those forced to flee were Louis and Shorty Fred, who said they had escaped on Saturday with flames close behind them.

“I’ve been living here all my life and I’ve really never seen anything like this,” Louis Fred said.

“Even 2021 was bad. It was huge. But the wind wasn’t nothing like compared to this one.”

About 8,000 people have been evacuated across British Columbia, said Emergency Management Minister Kelly Greene.

There were 37 evacuation orders issued on Tuesday, with conditions changing hourly. British Columbia’s wildfire service said about 120 wildfires were burning across the province, roughly 50 out of control.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said: “My thoughts are with everyone whose life has been upended by the wildfires in British Columbia.”