Melburnians in Canada escape horrific fire as ‘unprecedented’ heat wave wreaks havoc

A couple of Melburnians who moved to Canada amid Victoria’s catastrophic bushfires at the end of 2019 say the “unprecedented” heatwave and wildfires near Vancouver has brought back troubling memories.

Ash Peplow-Ball and Fergus Kinnair spoke with 3AW Drive from Vancouver on Friday.

Temperature records have been consistently smashed in British Columbia over the past week, with nearly 500 people dying in the province due to the heat that has in some places reached almost 50 degrees Celsius.

Wildfires have unsurprisingly broken out, with Ash and Fergus narrowly escaping carnage at Lytton.

“We could see smoke on both sides of the highway (while driving home through Lytton) and actually glanced some flames coming down the mountainside,” Fergus explained.

“It seemed pretty intense.

“There were lots of emergency vehicles and trucks starting to rock up at the scene.

“We got home and a couple of hours later saw some pictures on social media (and) the entire town we drove through is basically gone.”

Ash suffers badly from Asthma and has been constantly monitoring the smoke, like she was in the weeks and days before leaving Melbourne.

Press PLAY below to hear their story

Picture by Getty iStock