Fresh wildfires have broken out in western Canada and forests continued to burn in Ontario as the country battled what the prime minister, Mark Carney, called one of the most intense wildfire seasons on record.
Nearly ۳۴,۰۰۰ lightning strikes over the past week led to a series of fires and evacuation orders in southern British Columbia. There were ۲۵ evacuation orders and ۹۰ active wildfires in the province as of Friday morning, and authorities said warming and drying conditions could cause them to grow.
Hugh Murdoch, the incident commander of a cluster of fires near Kimberley, ۳۲۰ miles (۵۲۰km) from Vancouver, said: “The weather forecast is far from favourable. There is no significant help from mother nature whatsoever in the foreseeable future.”
Wildfires fuelled by intense heat and lightning storms attributed to warmer temperatures have burned remote forests across Canada this summer. Smoke from them drifted across large US east coast and midwestern cities last week.
There were ۱۳۹ active wildfires in north-west Ontario, of which ۳۲ were not under control.
Environment Canada issued an alert for poor air quality in Banff, Alberta and surrounding areas on Friday but said conditions were expected to improve for most areas over the weekend.
Carney said in a statement that the federal government would mobilise more than ۵,۳۰۰ firefighters and about ۳۰۰ water bombers, helicopters and evacuation aircraft to battle the fires. Mexico would also send as many as ۲۰۰ firefighters in the coming weeks, he added.
Thousands of people, including some First Nations communities, have been evacuated this summer. About ۲.۹۵m hectares (۷.۲۹m acres) of land have been burned this year, above the ۱۰-year average of about ۲.۵۵m hectares. Canada currently has more active wildfires than it did at the same time in either of the past two years.
The country’s forested areas account for ۲۸% of the world’s boreal forests.
Improving weather in the east has helped Quebec tame some blazes with help from firefighters from neighbouring provinces, France and the US.
Stéphane Caron,, of the province’s forest fire prevention agency Sopfeu, said: “The situation in Quebec is under control. We have good weather to help us. We have to make sure that there’s no hotspot on the ground any more because if there’s hot weather and no rain, the fire can be back.”
