"It is shaping up to be, unfortunately, the difficult season we were worried about," B.C. Premier David Eby said when speaking about the provincial wildfire situation at an event in Courtenay on Tuesday.

Eby, as well as many other wildfire responders and crews, had a rough night on Monday night.

"We received some crisis communications from our neighbours, our friends, in Alberta about wildfire that they believe was moving very quickly towards Jasper, both the park and the community," he said. "There was a need for and urgent evacuation, and the highway was blocked into Alberta, meaning that the only road that was open was in British Columbia."

Eby said that the provincial fire crews "swung into action" to support evacuees, and that residents of Valemount even opened their doors to people who were unable to find shelter at the local community centre there.

"I called the Premier of Alberta to share our comittment and provide all of the support that we can," Eby said. "Last wildfire season was catastrophic. It was an awful wildfire season. I saw three planes from Alberta come in last season.

"We have leaned on Alberta before, we've leaned on Ontario, Newfoundland and on other provinces and jurisdictions," he said. "This was our chance to pay that back."

The Alberta border is far from the only place in the province with wildfire danger. In particular to Vancouver Islanders is the rapidly-growing fire near the Sooke Potholes.

"It's really terrifying for a place like Vancouver Island that has never really grappled with wildfires in the way that they have these past few years," he said. "The impact of wildfire in a place that's usually quite damp ...  to have these kinds of fire impacts showing up here on the island is really worrying for people who may think we're seeing the start of a significant trend.

Eby said that there were many lessons learned from last year, and that the province has implemented those recommendations.

"What people will be seeing here on the Island is more equipment," he said. "We went into this season with more equipment than we did last year. We're using night vision to be able to support the crews on the ground better who are fighting 24 hours a day. There's better integration. When you have a community where there's an urban firefighting force, but then there's also a wildfire force better, you get  coordination between the two forces.

"A lot of effort went into improving that training and coordination between the two teams that interface between the community and the forest. So my hope is that we're going to see the benefit of that as we see increased wildfire activity and and that's going to result in, as it has so far this season, minimizing any structural losses or catastrophic losses like we've seen in past years."