This Saturday, July 15, the Canadian government announced that more than 10 million hectares have already been burned since the beginning of the year. A historic achievement for a country that fears the future.
More than 10 million hectares of forest have already burned in Canada this year, more than the country has ever seen. The data will continue to increase in the coming weeks, according to government data released on Saturday. The record was previously established in 1989 at 7.3 million hectares. By comparison, the French metropolitan area has 8 million hectares of forest. It’s like they all went up in smoke.
read more:
Megafires in Canada: A Lot-et-Garonne firefighter on the front lines
More than 150,000 people have been displaced and since January the country has counted 4,088 fires, including several that have reached several hundred thousand hectares. It is mainly boreal forest, which is far from inhabited areas, but has serious consequences for the environment.
read more:
Two firemen from Aveyron went to Canada as reinforcements
Canada is more affected than other countries
“We’re seeing worse figures this year than our most pessimistic scenarios,” Yann Boulanger, a researcher at the Canadian Ministry of Natural Resources, told AFP. As of Saturday, July 15, there were 906 active fires in the country, 570 of which were out of control.
read more:
Hautes-Pyrénées: Two Picordans firefighters fly to fight fire in Canada
For months now, much of Canada has been in a severe drought with below-average rainfall. Circumstances that reinforce fire outbreaks and their intensity. The country has been facing a proliferation of extreme weather events in recent years, and above all due to climate change.
“Alcohol enthusiast. Twitter ninja. Tv lover. Falls down a lot. Hipster-friendly coffee geek.”
