Canada breaks record with 10 million hectares burned by megafires

More than 10 million hectares were incinerated by forest fires this year in Canadaa figure well above the last record held by the North American country and which will continue to increase in the coming weeks, according to government data released on Saturday.

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

In total, 4,088 fires have been recorded since last January, many of which have reached hundreds of thousands of hectares. More than 150,000 people also had to be evacuated from those areas.

The magnitude of the fires and their number force the authorities not to intervene and therefore to let the majority continue burning.

Mainly boreal forests burn, far from inhabited areas. However, they have serious consequences for the environment.

“This year we find figures worse than our most pessimistic scenarios,” Yan Boulanger, a researcher at Canada’s Department of Natural Resources, told AFP.

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

On Saturday, 906 fires were active in the country, including 570 considered out of control. No Canadian province is spared.

At the start of the season, in May, it was Alberta, in the west, that focused all the worries as it was 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 themselves caught up in mega-fires.

And since the beginning of July it is in British Columbia where the situation has taken a dramatic turn with more than 250 fires in three days last week, caused mainly by lightning strikes during storms.

Much of Canada is in a state of severe drought with rainfall well below the usual average for months and extremely hot temperatures.

Source: AFP