Wildfire threatens Canada wine region

TORONTO:

Canadian winemakers have been forced to evacuate their land due to a fast-spreading wildfire that has engulfed parts of British Columbia, with some still awaiting word on whether their crops were impacted by the blaze.

John Glavina, who owns the Giant Head Estate Winery in the community of Summerland, told AFP he got an evacuation order just hours after the Bald Range fire ignited on August 7.

He got in the car with his wife, dog, passport and laptop, but left behind 20 barrels of red wine in a cellar, three tanks of white wine and 14 tonnes of grapes on the vine. "We have CAD$45,000 (US$32,000) worth of crop that we could lose," he said. AFP