416 forest fires Canadian authorities fear forest fires “all summer”
Forest fire in Quebec on Thursday
©AFP
Authorities say wildfires in Canada will continue for weeks. “We are facing a battle that we believe will continue throughout the summer,” Quebec province security minister Francois Bonnardel said Saturday. “This is the first time in the history of Quebec that we have fought so many fires and evacuated so many people,” said the minister.
A total of 416 wildfires erupted across Canada on Saturday, with 203 out of control. In the province of Alberta, the situation worsened further on Friday evening after a few days of relative calm. Edson residents have been ordered to evacuate for the second time since early May. “The fire is so out of control that some crews have had to pull out,” Yellowhead County Administrator Luc Mercier said.
In the province of British Columbia, the town of Tumbler Ridge, which has a population of 2,400, was also largely flattened after a fire broke out a few miles from the town.
Canada is experiencing wildfires on an unprecedented scale this year. More than 4.6 million hectares of land have been devastated by the flames since the beginning of the year and tens of thousands of people have had to flee to safety. According to experts, climate change is leading to increasingly violent forest fires.
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