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Dangerous wildfires have burned tens of thousands of acres and are closing in on multiple Canadian towns, forcing thousands of people to evacuate and worsening air quality.
The country's wildfire season is progressing at an alarming pace, with new fires breaking out every day and dormant so-called “zombie” fires making a comeback. The 2024 fire season has yet to match last year's record-setting season, but with wildfire trends worsening in a warming world, Canadian fire officials have raised the possibility of matching last year. No wonder he warns of an “explosive” season.
Extremely dry and windy conditions have caused multiple fires to grow to thousands of acres since last weekend. Even as rainy weather approaches, strong winds will continue to make firefighting difficult in some states until midweek.
The Parker Lake Fire in northeast British Columbia grew from 13,000 acres on Monday to nearly 21,000 acres on Tuesday due to strong winds. The fire started early Tuesday morning just over a mile west of the town of Fort Nelson.
Andrey Aksenov/BCEHS/Reuters
The Parker Lake Fire shines in an aerial photo taken Friday by British Columbia Emergency Medical Services personnel through the window of a plane evacuating patients from near Fort Nelson, Canada.
British Columbia's Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Preparedness Bowin Marr confirmed Monday that at least 4,700 people have been ordered to evacuate, including in Fort Nelson and Fort Nelson First Nation.
Northern Rockies Mayor Rob Fraser told CNN on Tuesday morning that all but 50 people complied with evacuation orders. No deaths or injuries were reported.
Large-scale wildfires also broke out, prompting evacuation orders in Manitoba and warnings in Alberta. An evacuation alert means people are ready to evacuate in case an evacuation order is issued.
One of the country's largest wildfires is burning in Manitoba, with more than 86,000 acres scorched as of Monday. Manitoba officials said more than 500 residents had been evacuated as of Monday in the community of Cranberry Portage, which is less than a mile from the fire.
A large fire broke out about 16 miles southwest of Fort McMurray. in the northeast Alberta, which was devastated by wildfires in 2016, had consumed more than 23,000 acres as of Tuesday after growing significantly overnight. Evacuation alerts have been issued for residents of Fort McMurray, Sapre Creek, Gregoire Lake Estates, Fort McMurray 468 First Nation and Anzac, Alberta officials said.
Alberta wildfire information officer Jose St-Onge said Tuesday that the wildfire “remains out of control” and that it “spread significantly in a northeast direction yesterday and continues to grow in that direction today.” It added that the fire was being pushed by winds towards the town of Fort. McMurray.
St-Onge said firefighters were withdrawn from the fire line due to difficult weather and fire conditions, but crews continued to fight the fire with air support.
The Wood Buffalo Municipality also issued an evacuation order on Tuesday, with officials telling residents of Avasand, Beacon Hill, Prairie Creek and Grayling Terrace to prepare to evacuate by 4pm local time.
“These areas are directly connected to areas where fires can spread. Local emergency services will be better able to protect against wildfires if they are uninhabited and uninhabited,” Wood Buffalo said. officials said in a news release.
The city declared a local state of emergency.
“Our top priority is the protection of life and property,” Regional Fire Chief and Emergency Management Director Jody Butts said in a news release. “It is important to note that the fire activity is very different to the 2016 Horse River bushfire and we are well-equipped to respond to this situation.”
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All the fire activity is spewing dangerous smoke across Canada and into the United States. The threat of smoke lasts as long as the fire burns.
Tuesday morning, fog rolled in and air quality levels dropped from the Dakotas to Kansas. The central United States will remain the smoke capital of Canada until at least midweek.
Strong winds kept the fires burning Tuesday, but the seeds for the fire activity were sown during the winter and over the past few years as the world continued to warm due to human-induced climate change.
“This region has experienced a long-term drought, and snowfall this winter was below normal,” said Ben Bogeen, a fire behavior specialist with the B.C. Wildfire Service. “As a result, forests in the Fort Nelson area are highly susceptible to new fire outbreaks and rapid rates of spread.”
According to Environment Canada, reduced snowfall, warmer temperatures and worsening droughts are all hallmarks of climate change, and large and intense fires are expected to continue to occur across Canada.
Last year was the most devastating fire season on record in Canada, including fires in British Columbia that gutted hundreds of homes and an area the size of Maryland, according to the BC Wildfire Service. did.
There are more than 130 fires across Canada, 40 of which are believed to be out of control, according to the Canadian Fire Center.
Alberta wildfires/Reuters
Smoke rose from a fire near Indian Cabins in Alberta, Canada, on Friday. The fire started in the Northwest Territories in 2023, but strong winds have reignited it in recent days, burning as far south as Alberta.
Some of the fires are so-called “residual fires,” also known as “zombie fires,” in which smoldering debris from last season's epic fires burns deep underground through the winter and flares up again when exposed to warm spring temperatures. .
“In the past, winter conditions were what put out a lot of the residual fires,” Marr said. “In this case, what we're seeing is that because of the high temperatures and persistent drought throughout last year, many of these residual fires weren't extinguished as they normally would.”
Two “zombie” fires, the Patry Creek Fire and the Noga Creek Wildfire, are rapidly growing north and east of Fort Nelson, contributing to evacuation orders.
