Ottawa, Aug. 10 -- Over 20,000 residents in western Canada were forced to evacuate overnight as a rapidly expanding wildfire swept toward towns bordering British Columbia's Okanagan Lake, burning structures in its wake.

According to CNN, emergency evacuation orders targeted the entire town of Summerland, population 12,000, as well as approximately 8,000 residents in and surrounding neighboring Peachland. Authorities are still working to assess the full extent of property damage.

First reported on Friday evening, the Bald Range wildfire expanded rapidly to roughly 50 square kilometres within hours. It overwhelmed the smaller community of Faulder before traversing the approximately 15 kilometres to Summerland at remarkable speed, CNN repo...