Western Canada is experiencing a surge in wildfires caused by nearly 34,000 lightning strikes in the past week, leading to multiple evacuation orders and ongoing firefighting operations.
The prime minister described this as one of the most intense wildfire seasons on record, with over 5,300 firefighters mobilized and international support aiding containment efforts.
Fresh wildfires have broken out in western Canada and forests continued to burn in Ontario as the country battled what the prime minister, Mark Carney, called one of the most intense wildfire seasons on record.
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Nearly 34,000 lightning strikes over the past week led to a series of fires and evacuation orders in southern British Columbia. There were 25 evacuation orders and 90 active wildfires in the province as of Friday morning, and authorities said warming and drying conditions could cause them to grow.
Hugh Murdoch, the incident commander of a cluster of fires near Kimberley, 320 miles (520km) from Vancouver, said: “The weather forecast is far from favourable. There is no significant help from mother nature whatsoever in the foreseeable future.”
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Wildfires fuelled by intense heat and lightning storms attributed to warmer temperatures have burned remote forests across Canada this summer. Smoke from them drifted across large US east coast and midwestern cities last week.
There were 139 active wildfires in north-west Ontario, of which 32 were not under control.
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Environment Canada issued an alert for poor air quality in Banff, Alberta and surrounding areas on Friday but said conditions were expected to improve for most areas over the weekend.
Carney said in a statement that the federal government would mobilise more than 5,300 firefighters and about 300 water bombers, helicopters and evacuation aircraft to battle the fires. Mexico would also send as many as 200 firefighters in the coming weeks, he added.
Background: Rising wildfires worldwide compel firefighters to prioritize limited resources amid worsening conditions.
Thousands of people, including some First Nations communities, have been evacuated this summer. About 2.95m hectares (7.29m acres) of land have been burned this year, above the 10-year average of about 2.55m hectares. Canada currently has more active wildfires than it did at the same time in either of the past two years.
The country’s forested areas account for 28% of the world’s boreal forests.
Improving weather in the east has helped Quebec tame some blazes with help from firefighters from neighbouring provinces, France and the US.
Stéphane Caron,, of the province’s forest fire prevention agency Sopfeu, said: “The situation in Quebec is under control. We have good weather to help us. We have to make sure that there’s no hotspot on the ground any more because if there’s hot weather and no rain, the fire can be back.”
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