What began as a far-below-average wildfire season for Canada has since exploded past historical norms, causing national crews to mobilize and United States officials to issue warnings.
Area burned in Canada was less than half of the 10-year average on July 7, but just 10 days and over 300 wildfires later, area burned now sits at 2.78 million hectares (6.87 million acres), according to the National Wildland Fire Summary. The growing total is already 300,000 hectares (741,000 acres) above the 10-year average. The number of fires burning throughout Canada, at 3,656 as of July 17, is already above the 25-year average of 3,652 fires.
The fires have caused widespread hazardous air quality in the U.S. Midwest and Northeast. U.S. President Donald Trump and the Environmental Protection Agency both issued warnings on Friday, urging Canadian officials to “extinguish these fires as fast as possible.”
“We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly sainting their forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable,” Trump said in a social media post. “I will call the Prime Minister during the day to find out what they are going to do about it.”
Fire danger is extreme in Ontario, with widespread wildfires causing evacuations in numerous communities across the province, according to Canada’s most recent fire summary. Fires are forecast to continue growing over the coming days due to high temperatures, dry weather and lightning.
The Northwest Territories and parts of Nunavut are also nearing extreme fire danger, while northern Manitoba, north-central Saskatchewan, and interior British Columbia’s fire danger are also expected to increase.
Wildfire smoke impacts are also expected to continue in both eastern Canada and the U.S. over the coming days, specifically due to heavy smoke emitted by fires in western Ontario. Canadian officials said diplomatic engagement is being coordinated to discuss smoke impacts on U.S. states.
12 Comments
I would wager most are started by deranged people with mental illness or agenda’s.
These have started deep in the Canadian wilderness, where humans cannot get to. It’s climate change, despite your fertile imagination.
Last time they were arresting people as well as posting the starters on social media, I’m would wager thats the case 800 fires dont start by themselves the agenda of climate change needs its fire starters.
Wrong, ever hear of lightening ?
These have all been sparked by lightning in remote areas. As for Trump’s idiotic comments, I wonder how he feels about the fire in Northern Minnesota that crossed over into Canada?
I hope the US is sending firefighters and aerial support to help extinguish these fires.💞
trump needs to shut the hell up about tariffs and send help to our neighbors…
It is true that we are having more wildfires. Nature needs to replace old forests with new forests to create habitat for many species. It does it with insects, disease, wind, and, finally with wildfires. This has been exacerbated with the excessively large old growth protection policies. It does not need to do it that way in many places. Strategic logging to remove old trees and planting can meet nature’s goals without the expense and chaos. We have seen this work well in BC and in Sweden and Finland. This is not an instant fix. There are many old forests now, and it takes time to plan and to put the plan to work. It was working, but has been put on hold, hopefully only temporarily. It is a government issue. Talk to your representatives to get back on track.
A good neighbor would ask if there was anything the US could do to help extinguish the fires faster.
You’re absolutely right, instead the orange idiot blasts the Canadians.
Such a moron he is!…
When California was burning, we stood by them and donated 30+ skids of supplies to their Fire Department. But when the tables turned and we needed backup? We were told they were ‘too busy preparing for their own season.’ Mutual aid shouldn’t end when your immediate crisis does.
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100% proud Canadian
We have some of the world’s most destructive and deadly fires here in super populated California so of course we aren’t gonna send any firefighters to Canada when we already don’t have enough as it is.