Wildfires in Canada: Latest Updates and International Aid for Nova Scotia and Beyond

2023-06-02 16:03:58

The rain, finally. Friday, June 2, sporadic showers brought a welcome respite to firefighters who have been fighting for six days against the fires that are ravaging Nova Scotia, a province in western Canada. But four hearths, out of 16 still active fires, still remained ” out of control “ authorities said.

« Flames reaching 60 to 90 meters, and a fire that rises and rolls like a freight train »testified a firefighter deployed on the largest fire ever recorded in the province. « We’ve never seen anything like it, it’s unknown to everyone.”also noted Eddie Nickerson, the prefect of the municipality of Barrington, where the fire, which now extends over 18,000 hectares, broke out on May 27.

As a precaution, the ministry’s local firefighting command center even had to relocate so that emergency teams could continue to work safely. A little further north, in the suburbs of the provincial capital, Halifax (430,000 inhabitants), another large fire began to be brought under control on Thursday by some 150 firefighters, five helicopters and the bomber plane. of water deployed. But in this dense residential area built in the middle of the woods, it left behind more than 200 houses and chalets in ashes, and led to the temporary evacuation of some 16,500 residents, out of the 22,000 displaced throughout the province. However, no missing or injured were reported.

The whole territory is set ablaze

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston and Halifax Mayor Mike Savage’s call for help on Wednesday was quickly followed up: the federal government urgently dispatched members of the Canadian Armed Forces , fire specialists, helicopters and trucks, while a hundred firefighters from the United States but also from Costa Rica are expected this weekend to lend a hand to the local teams. “Eleven water bombers are currently at work, and six more bombers are en route from Montana”, rejoiced the Prime Minister. Two hundred other firefighters from South Africa could be dispatched to Alberta, still plagued by blazes, thus joining the hundreds of firefighters from around the world, including Australia and New Zealand already on the ground. place.

Because since the beginning of spring, the entire Canadian territory has been set ablaze. The West first with Alberta at the beginning of May, whose gigantic hearths overflowed towards the neighboring provinces of British Columbia and Saskatchewan, then the North, towards the Northwest Territories; in the heart of the country, then, with Manitoba and Ontario, and finally since last week, to the east, on the Atlantic flank of Canada, where the fires broke out in the maritime provinces of the country, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

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