Past fires suggest effects of Europe and North America wildfires may linger for years

Hazy Toronto skyline caused by forest fires in northern Ontario, Canada, on 15 July 2026. Photograph: Cole Burston/AFP/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Hazy Toronto skyline caused by forest fires in northern Ontario, Canada, on 15 July 2026. Photograph: Cole Burston/AFP/Getty Images Past fires suggest effects of Europe and North America wildfires may linger for years Three years after Maui wildfires many still struggle with ‘biological, emotional and social consequences’, study says A spate of ferocious wildfires across North America and Europe , worsened by the climate crisis, have incinerated homes and forests and forced thousands of people to flee. Previous fires suggest the effects of these blazes may linger for years to come. The current fires and their plumes of smoke can appear to be a temporary, if immediate, crisis. Nearly 1,000 fires have sprung into life in the boreal forests of Canada, causing the evacuation of towns and toxic smoke to waft into major Canadian and US cities, prompting threats of retribution from Donald Trump, who bizarrely accused Canada of “poisoning” his country’s air. Smoke is billowing from wildfires in the US too, amid the third major heatwave of the past month which has furthered dried out parched vegetation. Vast, lightening-sparked fires across Washington, eastern Oregon and Idaho have caused a plume of smoke so large that it could reach Florida. In Europe, meanwhile, huge fires have gripped parts of the UK , France and Spain , causing the evacuation of more than 250,000 people. View image in fullscreen A house damaged by wildfires in Blagon, south-western France, on 27 July 2026. Photograph: Laurent Perpigna/EPA The climate crisis, caused by the burning of fossil fuels, is known to be creating more fire-prone conditions around the world by drying out soils and plants. “The entire Iberian peninsula is suffering the effects of the climate emergency in a very specific way,” said Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister. Scientists have also long been aware of the unhealthy consequences of wildfire smoke, which can trigger severe respiratory and cardiac problems in affected people. A recent study found that exposure to tiny particles carried in wildfire smoke will raise the risk of hospitalization for older people hundreds of miles away from fires. “The cardiovascular toll of wildfire smoke reaches well beyond the fire lines and well beyond the day the sky turns orange,” said Kai Chen, associate professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health and study co-author. But identifying the ongoing effects of wildfires long after they have been extinguished has been a more recent understanding. There are continuing challenges in Maui, the second largest of Hawaii’s islands, three years after wildfires there caused more than 100 deaths and razed several thousand buildings, a new report highlights. While living and economic conditions have generally improved since the fires, many people in Maui are still st