2023-07-16 04:25:36
If you needed a figure to realize the extent of forest fires in Canada… More than 10 million hectares have burned this year in Canada, a figure far greater than anything the country has ever known and which will continue to burn. increase in the coming weeks, according to government data released on Saturday.
The previous all-time record for burned areas dates back to 1989 with 7.3 million hectares, according to national figures from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center (CIFFC). In total, the country has counted 4,088 forest fires since January, and on Saturday 906 fires were still active, including 570 considered out of control.
The scale of the fires and their multitude oblige the authorities not to intervene and therefore to let the majority burn. It is mainly the boreal forest that goes up in smoke, far from inhabited areas. But with serious consequences for the environment. “What is completely crazy is that there has been no respite since the beginning of May”, analyzes Yan Boulanger, researcher for the Canadian Ministry of Natural Resources.
In the country, the number of fires continues to increase and particularly in the West, where in a few days several hundred departures of fires have been recorded, mainly triggered by thunderstorms. British Columbia, which recently ordered new evacuations, has requested the assistance of 1,000 additional international firefighters. More than 150,000 people have had to be displaced in the country since the beginning of the year.
A first death
The east and west of the country are affected simultaneously and some provinces unaccustomed to fires are also affected. One of the forest fires affecting northern Quebec alone engulfed more than a million hectares.
A young firefighter from western Canada died Thursday crushed by a tree during an intervention against one of these megafires. This is the first fatality of a firefighter since the start of this fire season. The 19-year-old firefighter was found “stuck under a toppled tree” by her team while clearing brush in a remote area where a small fire had broken out, federal police said.
Much of Canada is in a severe drought state with much below average rainfall for months and high temperatures. The country, which due to its geographical location is warming faster than the rest of the planet, has been confronted in recent years with extreme weather events whose intensity and frequency have been increased by climate change.
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