Fires in Canada: Pass 10 million hectares burned

For months, Canadian forests have been ravaged by massive fires. Because of this particularly dangerous fire, Canada has set a new record in terms of burned areas.

A more and more intense outbreak in North America. More than 10 million hectares have burned in Canada this year, more than the country has ever seen.

Although no province is spared, overall, the country has accounted for 4,088 forest fires since January, and on Saturday 906 fires were still active, of which 570 were not under control. The previous all-time record for areas burned was 7.3 million hectares in 1989, according to national statistics from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center (CIFFC).

Harmful consequences for the environment

The authorities do not interfere with the size of the fire and their crowd, so the majority must be allowed to burn. It smokes mainly boreal forests, far from inhabited areas. But with serious consequences for the environment.

“We’re seeing worse figures this year than our most pessimistic scenarios,” Jan Boulanger, a researcher at the Canadian Ministry of Natural Resources, told AFP. “The absolute madness is that there has been no respite since the beginning of May,” analyzed this forest fire expert.

At the beginning of the season, in May, it was Alberta in the west that concentrated all the worries by dealing with the unprecedented situation so quickly. A few weeks later, Nova Scotia, an Atlantic province with a much milder climate, and Quebec in particular were engulfed in megafires.

Since early July, the situation has taken a dramatic turn in British Columbia, with more than 250 fires raging over three days last week, mainly sparked by lightning.

A complicated geographical situation

Much of Canada has been in a severe drought with months of below-average rainfall and warm temperatures.

Due to its geographical location, the country is warming faster than the rest of the planet and has been experiencing extreme weather events in recent years, the intensity and frequency of which has increased due to climate change.

According to government data released on Saturday, the 10 million hectare figure will continue to rise in the coming weeks.