July 15, 2023

2023-07-15 17:43:12

More than 10 million hectares have burned this year in Canada, a figure well above anything the country has ever seen and which will continue to rise in the coming weeks, according to government data released on Saturday.

In total, the country has counted 4,088 forest fires since January, including many blazes reaching hundreds of thousands of hectares. More than 150,000 people also had to be displaced.

The scale of the fires and their multitude oblige the authorities not to intervene and therefore to let the majority burn. It is mainly the boreal forest that goes up in smoke, far from inhabited areas. But with serious consequences for the environment.

More than 500 fires out of control

The previous all-time record for burned areas dates back to 1989 with 7.3 million hectares, according to national figures from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center (CIFFC).

“We find ourselves this year with figures that are worse than our most pessimistic scenarios”, explains Yan Boulanger, researcher for the Canadian Ministry of Natural Resources. The area so burned in 2023 is more than 11 times the one-year average of the past decade.

“What is completely crazy is that there has been no respite since the beginning of May,” analyzes this forest fire specialist.

On Saturday, 906 fires were active in the country, including 570 considered out of control.

>> Watch the 7:30 p.m. report from the Halifax area:

Reporting from Halifax, Canada. The country suffers from fires of historic proportions / 7:30 p.m. / 3 min. / June 27, 2023

No province spared

No province is spared by these fires. At the start of the season, in May, it was Alberta, in the West, which concentrated all the concerns by being confronted very quickly with an unprecedented situation. A few weeks later, Nova Scotia, an Atlantic province with a very mild climate, and especially Quebec were in turn caught in megafires.

And since the beginning of July, it is in British Columbia that the situation has taken a dramatic turn with more than 250 starts of fires in three days last week, triggered mainly by lightning.

Much of Canada is in a severe drought state with far below average rainfall for months and warm temperatures.

Canada, which due to its geographical location is warming faster than the rest of the planet, has been confronted in recent years with extreme weather events whose intensity and frequency have been increased by climate change.

afp/boi

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