KAMLOOPS — About 84 properties along the Coquihalla Highway in the British Columbia Interior are on alert and one other has been ordered to evacuate due to an intense wildfire that saw drivers go through showers of embers before the highway was shut down.

The Thompson-Nicola Regional District says the evacuation order and alerts are due to the Mine Creek fire, which has reached 1,900 hectares in size and is burning near the highway between Hope and Merritt.

The Coquihalla Highway was closed Wednesday in the stretch near the fire and remains shuttered between Hope and Merritt, with motorists advised to take Highways 1 and 3 as alternatives.

Video shared on social media on Wednesday shows vehicles passing large trees engulfed in flames on both sides of the highway, before it was closed in

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