For the second straight year, the wildfires in B.C. was the top weather story for Environment Canada.

It led to another province-wide state of emergency, with nearly 2,000 wildfires across BC.

Environment Canada Senior Metereologist David Phillips, says at one point there were over 460 fires burning at the same time in August.

“I mean where do you send crews to fight those?” he said. “The area burned was a little bit more than last year, but that wouldn’t have made the number one story.”

“What made it was those fires created the smoke that caused health issues for 10 million Canadians.”

He added the smoky conditions might be the sign of things to come in the future.

“Canadians in other provinces were wheezing and gasping and smelling and pasting,” added Phillips. “It smelt like a smouldering campfire in Regina, and Winnipeg, and Kenora.”

“You could see that smoke from British Columbia fires. Fires will affect people from thousands of kilometres away because it gets caught up in the air stream and it becomes a big issue.”

Firefighters from across Canada, the United States, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand were joined by the military to battle back the blazes this summer.

While much of the smoke was from the fires in B.C., some of the smoke Phillips noted could have also been from fires in California.