The respite only lasted a few days. The fires that have ravaged Canada’s forests for several weeks, and which have already burned millions of hectares, have intensified again in the west of the country, forcing the evacuation of several thousand people.
In the province of Alberta, “the fire is so out of control that some forest crews have had to pull back,” said Luc Mercier, Yellowhead County’s managing director. “They can’t fight this fire.” The 8,400 residents of the city of Edson had to be evacuated by an order issued Friday night, the second since early May. The town of Tumbler Ridge (population 2,400), in north-eastern British Columbia, was also largely evacuated.
“A fight that will last all summer”
The situation also remains difficult in Quebec, particularly in the center and northwest, according to Public Safety Minister François Bonnardel.
“This is the first time in the history of Quebec to fight so many fires, to evacuate so many people,” the minister said on Saturday, June 10. “We’re going to have a fight that we think will last all summer.”
Nearly 14,000 people remain under evacuation orders in Quebec, and several municipalities remain threatened by the flames, according to the Minister of Public Safety. The Northeast fires are considered “stable.”
Canada is going through an unprecedented year. More than 4.7 million hectares of forest have been burned in fires since the beginning of the year, well above the average of the last decades. The Canadian Interagency Wildland Fire Center (CIFFC) lists on its website 426 active fires across the country, including 207 that are considered out of control. Fires whose consequences are felt up to the east coast of the United States, submerged in a cloud of suffocating smoke.
Source: BFM TV
