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Thousands of lightning strikes trigger fresh wildfires in western Canada
Smoke rises from wildfire near Quesnel in British Columbia thought to have been started by a lightning strike. Photograph: BC Wildfire Service/Reuters View image in fullscreen Smoke rises from wildfire near Quesnel in British Columbia thought to have been started by a lightning strike. Photograph: BC Wildfire Service/Reuters Thousands of lightning strikes trigger fresh wildfires in western Canada At least 90 active blazes in British Columbia in what PM says is one of the country’s most intense seasons on record How dangerous are wildfires and how can we stop them from getting worse? Fresh wildfires have broken out in western Canada and forests continued to burn in Ontario as the country battled what the prime minister, Mark Carney, called one of the most intense wildfire seasons on record. Nearly 34,000 lightning strikes over the past week led to a series of fires and evacuation orders in southern British Columbia. There were 25 evacuation orders and 90 active wildfires in the province as of Friday morning, and authorities said warming and drying conditions could cause them to grow. “The weather forecast is far from favorable. There is no significant help from mother nature whatsoever in the foreseeable future,” said the incident commander of a cluster of fires near Kimberley, 320 miles (520km) from Vancouver. Wildfires fuelled by intense heat and lightning storms attributed to warmer temperatures have burned remote forests across Canada this summer. Smoke from them drifted acorss major US east coast and midwestern cities last week. View image in fullscreen Smoke from Canadian wildfire smoke hangs in the air over New York last week. Photograph: Christopher Neundorf/EPA There were 139 active wildfires in north-west Ontario, of which 32 were not under control. Environment Canada issued an alert for poor air quality in Banff, Alberta and surrounding areas on Friday but said conditions were expected to improve for most areas over the weekend. Scientists decry Trump’s ‘blame game’ after he claims Canada ‘poisoning’ US air Read more Carney said in a statement that the federal government would mobilise more than 5,300 firefighters and about 300 water bombers, helicopters and evacuation aircraft to battle the fires. Mexico would also send as many as 200 firefighters in the coming weeks, he said. Thousands of people, including some First Nations communities, have been evacuated this summer. About 2.95m hectares (7.29m acres) of land have been burned this year, above the 10-year average of about 2.55m hectares. Canada currently has more active wildfires than it did at the same time in either of the past two years. The country’s forested areas account for 28% of the world’s boreal forests. Improving weather in the east has helped Quebec tame some blazes with help from firefighters from neighbouring provinces, France and the US. “The situation in Quebec is under control. We have good weather to help us,” said Stéphane Caron of the province’s
