Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the arrival of “hundreds of American firefighters” to fight the wildfires in Canada, whose smoke has already reached the east coast of the United States.
In a message posted Wednesday, Trudeau said more American firefighters are “on their way” to Canada and said he had spoken to US President Joe Biden by phone.
“I thank you for all the help that the Americans are providing as we continue to fight these devastating forest fires,” added the head of the Canadian government, on the social network Twitter.
In a statement released Wednesday, the White House confirmed that Biden had offered to help Canada fight “devastating and historic” wildfires.
“The President has directed his team to use all federal firefighting resources that can help quickly extinguish fires affecting Canadian and North American communities,” the statement said.
In addition to Canadian cities, parts of the United States, including New York, went on air pollution alert Wednesday, prompting schools to shut down outdoor sports and recess.
Canada was battling more than 400 active fires on Tuesday, with the most in the province of Quebec. The country registered 2,293 forest fires this year and around 3.8 million hectares burned, above the average of the last decades.
Quebec Prime Minister François Legault announced Monday that the province was expecting the arrival of 200 firefighters specialized in fighting forest fires from France and the United States and that it was in talks with other countries, such as Costa Rica and Chile, to send more. staff if necessary.
Legault recommended that the inhabitants of the province close the windows and avoid outdoor physical activities, especially people with respiratory problems.
Justin Trudeau pointed to climate change as the reason for the increase in the number of large fires, which “are affecting daily routines, lives and livelihoods, and the quality of our air.”
“We will continue to work, here at home and with partners around the world, to address climate change and address its impacts,” Trudeau promised.
The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, also used social networks to remind that “half of humanity is in the danger zone of forest fires and other extreme weather events, such as floods, droughts and extreme storms”.
“With rising global temperatures, the need to rapidly reduce the risk of forest fires is more critical than ever. We are running out of time to make peace with nature, but we cannot give up,” the Portuguese concluded.
Source: TSF
