More than 400 lightning strikes spark eight new wildfires, BC Wildfire Services says

The agency monitoring wildfires in British Columbia says eight new blazes have sprung up in the southern regions of the Northwest Fire Centre after more than 400 lightning strikes hit the area on Friday night.

The BC Wildfire Service says four of the new fires are burning west of the Witset community, which is home to about 611 on-reserve members.

The service says while the blazes fires are all small in size, assessing some of them has been "a challenge" due to their remote locations.

More than 380 active wildfires are burning across the province, and a summary from the BC Wildfire Service says there is a “significant chance” of lightning in the southern interior which could both start new fires and fuel existing ones.

The wildfire service website shows there are six blazes of note in BC, including the Hullcar Mountain wildfire that's burning approximately 13 kilometres northwest of Armstrong and is roughly 7.1 square kilometres in size.

The province also issued an air quality advisory Saturday for most of the southern interior and parts of northern B.C., noting these regions will be affected by wildfire smoke over the next 24 to 48 hours.

Other affected areas include Central and North Okanagan, Fort Nelson, Fraser Canyon, South Thompson, West Kootenay and Whistler.