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Campers abandoned their belongings and fled on foot while police evacuated nearby homes after a wildfire near the Kootenay Boundary town of Rock Creek roared through the surrounding area on Thursday.

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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Wildfires ripped through Rock Creek, B.C. so quickly that campers had no time to collect their things — they just ran Back to video

The blaze grew to an estimated 800 hectares within hours, shut down a pair of highways and prompted an evacuation of hundreds of homes, said Fanny Bernard, a B.C. Wildfire Service spokeswoman.

“Our main priority is life and property,” Bernard said, “we’re doing everything we can to suppress this fire.”

About 200 campers ran from the Kettle River Recreation Area — some with nothing more than the clothes on their backs — leaving their vehicles and trailers behind, said Bernard.

Meanwhile, police helped residents evacuate farms and homes in and around Rock Creek, Westbridge and up the Christian Valley, according to Bernard and the Grand Forks RCMP detachment.

More than 200 homes were evacuated by 8 p.m., said Alan Stanley, an official at the regional district who took to Twitter to post evacuation updates through the evening for residents and their concerned friends and family members.

Evacuees from Rock Creek to Westbridge were directed northwest to Kelowna, while those on Christian Valley Road north to Fiva Creek were sent north to Lumby.