TORONTO – 3.7 million hectares burned: the area hit by wildfires – so far – this season is the second largest on record in Canada (after 2023), according to data released by the federal government today. And the summer has still to begin.
According to the government officials and ministers – after a technical briefing, this morning, with Public Safety Canada: read here – this year’s fire season has already seen flames consume 3.7 million hectares, six times the size of Prince Edward Island. That’s a huge amount, considering the 10-year average for wildfire seasons is about 800,000 hectares. And the next few weeks won’t be easy: above-normal temperatures are expected across the country through August, especially in provinces east of Manitoba, although the risk of wildfires is expected to remain higher in the central and western provinces and territories, particularly southern British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon.
Meanwhile, while fires are raging across much of the country, there is also the first good news, coming from Saskatchewan where the changed weather conditions have allowed, in the last few hours, to control some of the fires (23 are still active) and to begin the return of some of the thousands of evacuees, while the situation remains difficult in Manitoba, where 25 forest fires are still active, 10 of which are out of control. The largest in the province is located near Flin Flon, about 630 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg: the fire extends over a surface area of about 308,000 hectares.
Meanwhile, ongoing investigations into the fires that have broken out in recent weeks are revealing that dozens – the vast majority of the total – are man-made. In some cases, intentionally. The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) has already said, two weeks ago (read here), that the majority of wildfires in northern Saskatchewan so far this year were human-caused and avoidable.
In the pic above, a wildfire in Manitoba (photo from Twitter X – @cityofwinnipeg)
