2023-08-19 22:32:52
A cloud of smoke over the city of Kelowna, a village in British Columbia, Canada, August 18, 2023. DARREN HULL / AFP
Tens of thousands of people have had to be evacuated across northern and western Canada as firefighters continue to battle blazes of rare intensity that will leave “a lasting scar”.
“It is the first time that something like this, of this magnitude, has happened in the region”, explained Tony Whitford, 82 years old. He and his family were evacuated Thursday from Yellowknife, capital of the Northwest Territories surrounded by fires for several days, to the city of Calgary in Alberta, some 1,750 km to the south.
At least 19,000 people have been evacuated from Yellowknife in the past 48 hours, almost the entire city, said Shane Thompson, Minister of Environment for the Northwest Territories, on Friday evening. 15,000 people fled by road, 3,800 were evacuated by air, mainly to Calgary, while at least 300 firefighters were mobilized to fight the flames, he added, one of the most important devices that this very isolated region of the Canadian Far North has known.
“It was really awful. I could not believe it “said Martha Kanatsiak, 59, a resident of Yellowknife for more than 20 years who arrived late Friday in Calgary. “I’m fine but I’m sad, depressed and worried. I have never seen anything like it”she added.
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“Lasting Scar”
The City of Calgary has made 495 hotel rooms available for evacuees, officials said. Refugees from the Far North were received in a small room to be registered and distributed to hotels. Fruit, biscuits and water were made available to them.
The fires are located Saturday 15 kilometers from Yellowknife but winds from the northwest could push the flames near the city limits, according to Canadian authorities.
British Columbia, also facing blazes, had to declare a state of emergency on Friday. Thick smoke enveloped in particular the city of Kelowna, nearly 600 kilometers west of Calgary, which has about 150,000 inhabitants.
The local University of British Columbia campus, home to more than 11,000 students, was placed under evacuation orders on Friday evening and airspace in the area was closed to aid the planes’ efforts. of fire fighting. The situation is also critical on the other side of Okanagan Lake, in West Kelowna (population over 30,000) where “a large number” houses burned down, authorities said.
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“Yesterday was one of the toughest firefighting days our services have experienced”West Kelowna Fire Chief Jason Brolund said Saturday at a press conference. “It is certain that this event will leave a lasting scar”he added.
A thousand fires
Some 30,000 people have been ordered to evacuate to British Columbia. And another 36,000 residents have been ordered to stand by for possible evacuation, said Bowinn Ma, the provincial emergency manager.
Heavy smoke on Saturday reduced visibility, making firefighter operations even more complex, while further evacuation orders and alerts were expected depending on the progress of the fires, Colombia’s fire department said. -Columbia on X (formerly Twitter).
Several thousand evacuations have also taken place in the state of Washington in the United States, neighboring British Columbia, where a fire broke out on Friday near the city of Spokane, according to local press. Authorities have confirmed one death.
More than a thousand fires are currently ravaging Canada from east to west, including more than 230 in the Northwest Territories and more than 370 in British Columbia. The country is experiencing a record-breaking wildfire season this year: 14 million hectares – about the size of Greece – have burned, double the last record dating back to 1989.
Canada has been confronted in recent years with extreme weather events whose intensity and frequency are increased by global warming.
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