Video, photos from helicopter show damage left by Lytton, B.C., fire

VANCOUVER -

Video captured from the air shows the extent of the damage caused by a fire that tore through a village in B.C.'s Interior last week.

The aerial video and images captured by news organization Reuters over Lytton on Tuesday show what's left of the homes in the population-250 village.

Houses have been reduced to piles of rubble on each residential lot.

Smoke hangs in the sky over the area from a wildfire burning nearby.

An estimated 90 per cent of the village was destroyed, according to its mayor, and while the cause of the fire is still under investigation, it is expected to be human, officials said. 

The RCMP said it was not ruling out criminal charges as it investigates the fire that led to the evacuation of about 1,000 people during record-breaking heat.

Those forced to leave their houses have not been able to return yet, but the Thompson-Nicola Regional District says it's planning a bus tour to allow them to survey the damage as soon as it's safe to enter the village. 

The BC Coroners Service has confirmed that two people were found dead in Lytton. It's unclear how many people are unaccounted for a week later, but the service said previously there had been no other reports of suspected deaths.