Hundreds of wildfires are burning across Canada, many of them out of control, have blanketed cities in a thick haze of smoke, amid warnings from experts the situation will continue to worsen.
Toronto has long been known as “the Big Smoke” for its history of heavy industry, but the nickname took on a different meaning on Wednesday when residents donned masks outside, following alerts from officials that the city’s air quality would continue to deteriorate. Outdoor school events were delayed and city officials warned vulnerable groups to remain inside when possible. In the nation’s capital of Ottawa, Environment Canada said the air quality was “very high risk”, alongside the nearby cities of Kingston, Cornwall and Belleville. In much of southern Ontario, the poor air quality is expected to persist into the weekend.
The bulk of the smoke in eastern Canada is coming from the province of Quebec, where crews are contending with more than 150 fires, many of which are considered “out of control”.
Winds have also carried the wildfire smoke southward, prompting air-quality alerts throughout the US. On Wednesday, both Detroit and New York City had some of the world’s worst air quality of a major city. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has previously issued poor air quality alerts for New England, parts of Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
As of Tuesday afternoon, there were 415 active wildfires across Canada and 238 were considered out of control. Since the fire season began, 2,214 blazes have already burned more than 3.3m hectares of the country, well above the 10-year average of 1,624 fires and 254,429 hectares burned.
The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre says it had been an “unprecedented” year for wildfires and resources were being exhausted across the country.
While eastern Canada is under a relatively rare haze of smoke, crews in British Columbia are waiting for a shift in weather to tackle the Donnie Creek fire, a blaze stretching more than 2,400 sq km in size. The BC Wildfire Service says the wildfire is now considered the second largest in provincial history.
Federal officials in Canada warned that without a change in weather, the country was on pace for its worst-ever year for wildfire destruction, pointing to warm and dry conditions that are forecasted to persist in all regions of the country throughout the summer.
“This is a scary time for a lot of people,” the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, told reporters earlier this week.
Canada is currently at its highest national preparedness level, with available resources stretched thin across the country.
Since May, more than 100,000 people have been forced from their homes as wildfires hit all regions of the country, including in places like Nova Scotia, where large, destructive wildfires are relatively uncommon.
To combat the blazes, Canada has called on other countries to help. At the moment, there are nearly 1,000 international firefighters helping Canadian crews, coming from the US, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
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June 06, 2023 at 02:00PM
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‘Out of control’ fires burn across Canada as poor air quality expected to persist - The Guardian
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