More than 14,000 people were evacuated in the western Canadian province of British Columbia over heavy wildfires, local media reported.

Axar.az reports citing Sputnik news.

Thousands people are preparing to flee their homes, the CTV Vancouver News broadcaster reported on Monday.

On late Monday, the entire city of Williams Lake was reportedly placed on an evacuation alert over an approaching wildfire.

At the moment the British Columbian officials cannot assess the damage caused by the ongoing wildfires triggered by dry and hot weather but the CTV broadcaster reported about devastating damages in the evacuated zones citing the aerial images.

Since the beginning of April a total of 572 wildfires have been registered in British Columbia with 258 of them caused by human activities. More than 1,000 firefighters are deployed to put out the blazes.