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Government data showed, Saturday, that Canadian wildfires have burned more than 10 million hectares (24.7 million acres) this year, a record that will continue to rise in the coming weeks.
The previous highest on record occurred in 1989, when 7.3 million hectares burned over the course of an entire year, according to national figures from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center (CIFFC).
In total, 4,088 fires have broken out since January, including many that have burned hundreds of thousands of hectares. Along the way, more than 150,000 people have been displaced.
Due to the size and multiplicity of the fires, the authorities had to let most of them burn.
The majority of fires have occurred in forests, far from inhabited areas – but they can still have devastating consequences for the environment.
“We find ourselves this year with numbers worse than the most pessimistic scenario,” Yann Boulanger, a researcher at the Canadian Ministry of Natural Resources, told AFP.
“What’s absolutely crazy is that there has been no relief since the beginning of May,” he said.
As of Saturday, there were 906 active fires in the country, including 570 that were deemed out of control — and no county was spared.
The situation has turned dramatic across the country in recent months: in May, at the start of the wildfire season, Alberta in the West was the center of attention, with unprecedented fires.
Several weeks later, the temperate Atlantic province of Nova Scotia took over the baton, followed by Quebec, where huge fires sent plumes of smoke that blanketed even parts of the United States.
Since the beginning of July, the situation has taken a dramatic turn in British Columbia, where more than 250 fires started in just three days last week, most of them caused by lightning.
Much of Canada is experiencing severe drought, with months of mediocre rain and warm temperatures.
Scientists say that the country is warming faster than the rest of the planet due to its geography, and it has faced extreme weather events that have increased in intensity and frequency due to climate change.
The previous highest on record occurred in 1989, when 7.3 million hectares burned over the course of an entire year, according to national figures from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center (CIFFC).
In total, 4,088 fires have broken out since January, including many that have burned hundreds of thousands of hectares. Along the way, more than 150,000 people have been displaced.
Due to the size and multiplicity of the fires, the authorities had to let most of them burn.
The majority of fires have occurred in forests, far from inhabited areas – but they can still have devastating consequences for the environment.
“We find ourselves this year with numbers worse than the most pessimistic scenario,” Yann Boulanger, a researcher at the Canadian Ministry of Natural Resources, told AFP.
“What’s absolutely crazy is that there has been no relief since the beginning of May,” he said.
As of Saturday, there were 906 active fires in the country, including 570 that were deemed out of control — and no county was spared.
The situation has turned dramatic across the country in recent months: in May, at the start of the wildfire season, Alberta in the West was the center of attention, with unprecedented fires.
Several weeks later, the temperate Atlantic province of Nova Scotia took over the baton, followed by Quebec, where huge fires sent plumes of smoke that blanketed even parts of the United States.
Since the beginning of July, the situation has taken a dramatic turn in British Columbia, where more than 250 fires started in just three days last week, most of them caused by lightning.
Much of Canada is experiencing severe drought, with months of mediocre rain and warm temperatures.
Scientists say that the country is warming faster than the rest of the planet due to its geography, and it has faced extreme weather events that have increased in intensity and frequency due to climate change.
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