With flames in backyard, Boston Bar resident tells of B.C. town surrounded by fire

Attila Banhegyi said a tree was burning in the backyard of his home in Boston Bar, B.C., a community now surrounded by fire.

Banhegyi, who runs a campground and also has a mail-order cosmetics business, is one of the handful of residents still left in the Fraser Canyon township, after regional authorities issued an urgent plea for them to get out late Tuesday.

He said in an interview the next day that his home was shrouded in white smoke, like "flying through a cloud in an airplane," after the flames got to within 30 feet of his home, having been ignited around midnight by embers he thought came from the new fire to the south of the township.

"It got up in the trees," said Banhegyi. "It's very extensive, but mostly it was managed and is being managed, but they're still burning, so it could not be extinguished."

The new Anderson Creek blaze has left residents like Banhegyi only one escape route, north along Highway 1 that is shut to the south.

The fire that was detected Tuesday and is thought by the BC Wildfire Srvice to be human-caused now spans 43 square kilometres.

It added to the fires surrounding Boston Bar that threw up a vast pyrocumulus cloud that could be seen from Vancouver, 200 kilometres to the southwest.

Boston Bar was already under evacuation order before the new fire prompted the Fraser Valley Regional District to tell remaining residents to leave immediately.

Banhegyi said his services were still needed in the community, and he also wanted to protect his home.

"I've got fuel, I've got a generator. I've got a local resident who has his own water rights, helping fill up my water containers, and I've been actioning hot spots around my property … and livestock will need to be cooled down," he said.

Other holdouts had their reasons too, he said.

"It depends on the individual but one person says they can shut off the power, they can shut off the water, it'll be fine — he can fast for days," he said.

"Another person is going to save their home as they don't have insurance. Another person actually just came here today … he's here to assist those that have remained. It's some resilient individuals."

Banhegyi said he might leave Wednesday afternoon, depending on how the winds develop. 

The community is now surrounded by the Anderson Creek fire to the south, the Brunswick Creek fire west of the Fraser River and the Ainslie Creek fire to the northeast.

The existing evacuation orders were expanded late Tuesday to the Hells Gate area south of Boston Bar, as well as properties along Scuzzy Creek Forest Service Road, on the west side of the Fraser River.

Officials said they had set up an evacuee reception centre for those displaced by the Brunswick Complex of fires at McArthur Island Sports Centre in Kamloops.

A separate fire has meanwhile cut Highway 3, another main artery for the B.C. Interior, between Sunshine Valley and Manning Park.

The eruption of new fire activity came as about 40 heat warnings blanketed B.C., where temperatures reached 40.5 degrees in the Fraser Canyon at Lytton.

Further east, an incident commander for a complex of fires burning near Kimberley, B.C., said more resources were on the way to help firefighters as heat peaks this week.

Hugh Murdoch said Tuesday that crews were expecting what he called a "significant weather day" on Thursday due to dry and warm conditions.

Environment Canada said temperatures in the region may reach well into the 30s for the next two days as a ridge of high pressure moved across the province.

Murdoch said there were seven fires in the so-called Bootleg Complex in the Kootenay region near Kimberley, including two wildfires of note that have prompted evacuation alerts in the city.

He said there had been minimal growth on the fires in the previous few days, crediting the work from the crews with "assistance from Mother Nature."

But Murdoch said crews were looking to develop what he called a "large water delivery system" using helicopters in light of the weather forecast, noting that low streamflows were also posing a challenge.

Environment Canada issued air quality advisories covering much of the province due to smoke from about 90 wildfires burning across the province.

The BC Wildfire Service said in its situational report that smoky skies were expected to continue, and may worsen in the northeastern and central regions.

It also warned that "warming and drying conditions" were expected to persist throughout this week.

"Increasing temperatures and limited precipitation will continue to reduce fuel moisture levels, elevating the potential for new wildfire starts," it says. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 22, 2026.

— With files from Nono Shen, Chuck Chiang and Brieanna Charlebois in Vancouver

By Wolfgang Depner | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.