At least 90 active wildfires are burning in the western province of British Columbia after nearly 34,000 lightning strikes hit the region over the past week, sparking new blazes and forcing evacuations in the southern part of the province. Prime Minister Mark Carney described this as one of the most intense wildfire seasons Canada has ever recorded.
As of Friday morning, British Columbia had 25 evacuation orders and 90 active fires. Local officials warned that warmer, drier weather could cause the fires to spread further. Hugh Murdoch, incident commander for a cluster of fires near the town of Kimberley, about 520 kilometers from Vancouver, said: “The weather forecast is entirely unfavorable. There’s no significant help from nature in the near future.”
This summer, wildfires in Canada have been driven by extreme heat and lightning storms linked to above-normal temperatures. Smoke from the fires drifted into major cities in the eastern and midwestern United States last week.
In northwestern Ontario, 139 wildfires were active, 32 of which were out of control. Environment Canada issued poor air quality warnings for Banff, Alberta, and surrounding areas on Friday, though conditions were expected to improve over the weekend.
In a statement, Prime Minister Carney said the federal government will deploy more than 5,300 firefighters and about 300 firefighting aircraft, helicopters, and evacuation planes. Mexico is also sending 200 firefighters in the coming weeks. Thousands of people, including First Nations communities, have been evacuated this summer.
To date, approximately 2.95 million hectares have been burned this year, above the 10-year average of about 2.55 million hectares. Canada currently has more active wildfires than at the same point two years ago. Canada’s forests account for 28% of the world’s boreal forests.
Improved weather in the east has helped Quebec province contain some fires, with assistance from firefighters in neighboring provinces, France, and the United States. Stéphane Caron of Quebec’s forest fire agency Sopfeu said: “The situation in Quebec is under control. The weather is favorable and helping us. We need to make sure there are no remaining hot spots on the ground, because if it gets hot and there’s no rain, the fire could reignite.”
