A firefighter died this Friday in western Canada while fighting one of the ‘megafires’ that have devastated the country in recent weeks, Canadian authorities reported.
This is the first firefighter death since the start of this historic fire season in Canada, with more than 900 fires currently active, including more than 570 out of control.
“It is with a heavy heart that our union mourns the loss of a family member who was killed fighting a bushfire outside Revelstoke” in British Columbia, the BCGEU said.
The firefighter “died while fighting a fire,” the British Columbia Fire Department (BCWS) said in a response to Agence France-Presse (AFP) by email, without providing further details.
The last firefighter to die during combat in that Canadian province was in 2020. Federal police and the province’s health and safety agency launched an investigation.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recalled this Friday that the situation in the country remains “extremely serious”, regretting the “heartbreaking” death.
“We must never forget the risks these heroes take every time they face danger,” Trudeau said.
In the country, the number of fires continues to increase, particularly in the west, where several hundred fires were recorded in a few days, mostly caused by thunderstorms.
British Columbia, which recently ordered more evacuations, requested the assistance of an additional 1,000 international firefighters.
But “it’s very difficult to get additional resources to fight fires,” Cliff Chapman, a spokesman for the provincial fire department, said Thursday.
“It is a very dangerous job. The conditions we find ourselves in make it even more dangerous for our staff who are working 14, 16, 20 hour days trying to do everything possible to keep these fires away from strategic areas,” he added.
And the situation will not improve with “hot and dry weather expected in the coming months,” BCWS’s Sarah Budd told AFP: “We don’t expect any respite from the weather.”
With 9.7 million hectares already consumed by fires throughout the country – that is, 11 times the average for the last decade – the absolute annual record of 1989 has already been far surpassed.
The east and west of the country are affected simultaneously and some provinces not used to fires are also affected.
Just one of the forest fires that affected northern Quebec consumed more than one million hectares.
Canada, which due to its geographical location is warming faster than the rest of the planet, has faced extreme weather events in recent years whose intensity and frequency have been increased by climate change.
Source: TSF
