The images to the right were taken by the MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard NASA's Terra satellite.  They show wildfires in British Columbia, Canada on August 5, 2003. High-resolution IKONOS images of the two burn areas shown in the image below are also provided (see below).

NOTE: Credit for use of IKONOS images should include "Courtesy of Space Imaging" or similar and must include the Space Imaging logo.

Area 1: IKONOS Image of Chiko Lake Fire (Image Curtesy: Space Imaging)

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On July 31, 2003, Space Imaging's IKONOS-2 satellite captured this high-resolution image of the Chilko Lake Fire still smoldering in southwestern British Columbia. Surrounded by a large purplish-gray burned area, an isolated area of green vegetation (center) is harboring several actively burning areas, from which smoke plumes drift eastward.

Area 2: IKONOS Image of Louis Creek Fire (Image Courtesy: Space Imaging)

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This image was captured on Friday, August 8 by Space Imaging's IKONOS-2 satellite.  It shows the smoldering burned area from a massive fire that swept through the village of Louis Creek near the town of Barriere, British Columbia. In this near-infrared image living vegetation is seen in red (right side of image) and burned vegetation is charcoal-colored. The fire destroyed the sawmill village of Louis Creek, seen to the southeast of the hump in the North Thompson River (near the center of the image). Barriere is seen in the top center of the image and is covered by smoke and clouds.

Environmental Impacts:

• This summer is the worst fire season in a half-century in British Columbia, with more than 8,500 residents having been forced to leave their homes.  This is the largest number of people displaced by fire in the province in decades.
   

• Fire damage in the McLure-Barriere area, near Kamloops, is estimated at more than 8.2 million Canadian dollars (5.8 million US dollars), including the destruction of more than 40 houses and 26 trailers.

• The largest out-of-control fire is still raging near Lake Chilko, a sparsely populated area about 300 kilometers (240 miles) north of Vancouver, where 20,000 hectares (about 50,00 acres) of forest have already been devoured by flames.

• A volunteer firefighter in British Columbia told CBC television that his carelessly discarded cigarette sparked the forest fire near Kamloops that has caused millions of dollars of damage.

• Aid officials and grief counselors met on August 6 with displaced residents of Louis Creek, a town of just over 600 people, which lost 37 homes and a sawmill that was one of the region's biggest employers.

• Officials declared the town of Barriere, about 185 miles northeast of Vancouver, safe enough to reopen on August 9, as crews made progress containing the fire that has scorched more than 70 square miles of woodlands. An estimated 3,500 people displaced for more than a week by the fire were allowed to return home.