Hundreds of uncontrolled forest fires in about 13 provinces in Canada have been wreaking havoc for the last six weeks. It has burnt through more than 3.3 million hectares of land and has been causing mass evacuations.
It started early on drier-than-usual ground and accelerated very quickly, exhausting firefighting resources across the country, fire and environmental officials said. Smoke from the fire is now billowing down to the East Coast of the United States, affecting 75 million Americans.
Canada, like the rest of North America, has experienced record heat and drought recently. Late last month, Canada experienced its hottest day ever when Lytton, British Columbia hit 49.6 degrees Celsius or 121 degrees Fahrenheit, CBS reported. Drought has hit particularly hard in the prairies of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, where fires now rage.
Canada's wildfires are usually started by lightning. Dry, hot weather breeds more lightning. Fires caused by lightning account for over 85 per cent of wildfire destruction. Fires in other places have been human-caused due to various reasons from cigarette butts to sparks from passing trains. Currently, Canada is mobilising all its national resources to fight against the fires.
The country is currently at "national preparedness level 5". As part of the "level-5" declaration, "international liaison officers" from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa are flying in to help fight the fires. Firefighters from the US are also coming to fight the wildfires. "We've deployed more than 600 U.S. firefighters, support personnel, and equipment to support Canada as they respond to record wildfires – events that are intensifying because of the climate crisis," President Joe Biden said in a tweet.
The Canadian government, on Monday, issued an updated prediction: "Current June projections indicate the potential for continued higher-than-normal fire activity across most of the country throughout the 2023 wildland fire season due to ongoing drought and long-range forecasts for warm temperatures," it stated.
Some have blamed lax forest management. They said, enough controlled burns are being carried out thanks to campaigns by environmentalists. Most fires in the western provinces are under control. But the fires are now spreading to the eastern provinces of Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario.
And now, smoke from Canadian wildfires poured into the US East Coast and Midwest on Wednesday, covering the capitals of both nations in an unhealthy haze, holding up flights at major airports, postponing Major League Baseball games and prompting people to fish out pandemic-era face masks.
Air with hazardous levels of pollution extended into the New York metropolitan area, central New York State and parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Massive tongues of unhealthy air extended as far as North Carolina and Indiana, affecting millions of people. The air quality index, a US Environmental Protection Agency metric for air pollution, exceeded a staggering 400 at times in Syracuse, New York City and Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley. A level of 50 or under is considered good; anything over 300 is considered hazardous when even healthy people are advised to curtail outdoor physical activity.
-- With PTI inputs