TORONTO – Canada is in a full-blown fire emergency: many provinces are already dealing with flames and smoke, with summer yet to begin. And there are 188 fires currently underway, many of which are out of control: a huge front, which is also causing problems in the United States where the smoke from Canadian fires is arriving. And precisely because of the smoke, four provinces in Canada have already issued air quality warnings (which means: limit outdoor activities as much as possible) for some areas of their territories: Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Saskatchewan (to see the updates, click here).
One of the provinces most affected by the fires is, in fact, Manitoba, where about 17,000 people have had to leave their homes due to the fires – about twenty, half of which are out of control – that are moving rapidly across the territory. To evacuate some residents in remote areas and bring them to safety, the use of military planes and helicopters has been necessary, while firefighters are trying to contain the increase in flames. In the town of Flin Flon, which has a population of 5,000, only firefighters and support staff remain.
In recent days, Manitoba has declared a state of emergency (also asking for international help to fight the fires) and so has Saskatchewan, where there are 16 active fires, of which 9 are out of control. The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) has classified conditions in the province as “extreme” and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe warned in a press conference Saturday that the current number of 8,000 evacuees due to the fires could rise to 10,000 if dry conditions persist. “The next four to seven days are absolutely critical until we can figure out the right path to address climate change and ultimately until we get some heavy rain across the North,” Moe said.
And while Ontario’s fires are currently limited to parts of the North, large parts of Alberta and British Columbia have ordered evacuations due to the spread of the blazes. Alberta has 45 active fires, 25 of which are out of control, while in British Columbia, 69 fires have burned in the last 30 days – so in the month of May – most of which are still active.
In some cases, fires have caused the interruption of activities, as in the case of the oil production plant in Christina Lake, Alberta, about 150 kilometers southeast of Fort McMurray: a fire nearby forced the evacuation of about 200 residents of the village of Conklin and the company that manages the oil plant had to stop production, which will only be resumed when the situation allows it to be done in complete safety.
The situation is constantly evolving: for real-time updates on fires in Canada, you can consult the “Wildfires” section of the Government of Canada website (www.canada.ca) which leads to the various provincial pages from which we have drawn the data – updated to today – for this article.
In the pic above, one of the wildfires in Alberta (photo: Twitter X- @AlbertaWildfire)
