'The winds picked up like crazy': Hundreds on evacuation orders in B.C.'s Central Kootenay region

Danika Hammond is one of hundreds of people forced to flee their homes this week as wildfires spread in B.C.'s Central Kootenay region.

"I've never been through something like this with this kind of magnitude," said Hammond, who owns a general store with her mom in the small village of Silverton, on the east shore of Slocan Lake.

The entire village of roughly 200 residents was ordered to evacuate Wednesday as a cold front dramatically expanded the size of the nearby Aylwin Creek and Komonko Creek wildfires.

On the opposite side of the lake, the Nemo Creek 1 and 2 wildfires have also prompted evacuation orders.

Hammond recounted the harrowing expansion of the blazes in an interview with CTV News on Thursday.

"It was kind of midday when the winds picked up like crazy and I got a phone call from a friend being like, 'Hey, come down to the beach, you've got to watch this, this is insane,'" she said.

"(We) went to the beach and could see across the lake that the fire was just like jumping hundreds of metres at a time."

Elsewhere in the region, the village of New Denver was placed on evacuation alert Thursday because of the Wilson Creek wildfire, and evacuation orders have been issued due to the Argenta Creek wildfire on the east shore of North Kootenay Lake.

As of Thursday, more than 550 properties in the Regional District of Central Kootenay were subject to evacuation orders, and more than 1,000 were on evacuation alert, according to officials. 

The RDCK said there has been no confirmed property damage so far, but Hammond says watching the surrounding parkland burn has been devastating.

"It will never be the same, not for another 50 years," she said.

With files from CTV News Vancouver's Ben Nesbit