Canada is experiencing an unprecedented year, with more than 4.6 million hectares burned year-to-date, overall well above the average for recent decades.
In western Canada, fires have flared up again, leading to the evacuation of several thousand people, while in eastern Canada, in Quebec, authorities on Saturday predicted a fight against the fire that will last “all summer”.
After a few days of lull, the Alberta fires flared up again. An evacuation order was issued in the city of Edson, which has a population of about 8,400, Friday night, its second since early May. “The fire is so out of control that some logging teams have had to retreat,” said Luc Mercier, Edson-area administrative manager for Yellowhead County. “You can’t fight this fire.”
Hayley Waites left Edson with her children on Friday night along with a “huge convoy of people”. “When you panic and want to do anything, all you think about is saving yourself,” she told CBC. “But as soon as we start driving, we say to ourselves, + What if my house wasn’t there when I come back +?” In northeastern British Columbia, the town of Tumbler Ridge, population 2,400, was also largely evacuated after a Fire was only a few kilometers from the city.
In Quebec, Public Safety Minister François Bonnardel said Saturday morning that the situation in the central and north-west of the province remained difficult and several communities remained under threat. The fires in the north-east are considered “stable”. “It’s a first in Quebec’s history to fight so many fires and evacuate so many people,” he said. “We will fight a fight that we believe will last all summer,” added the minister.
Nearly 14,000 people are still under evacuation orders in Quebec, according to the Secretary of Public Safety. Across the country, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center (CIFFC) records 416 active fires, including 203 out of control. Canada is experiencing an unprecedented year, with more than 4.6 million hectares burned year-to-date, overall well above the average for recent decades.