West to east, a summer of wildfires
LIGHTNING STORMS STOKING TENSION
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Wildfire risks are soaring in British Columbia as lightning storms sweep across the province, sparking more than 300 blazes since Tuesday, the B.C. Wildfire Service said.
Spokesman Ryan Turcot said dozens of the fires recorded in the last few days were in the Cariboo region, the area hard hit by last year’s record-breaking fire season.
“The vast majority of these new fire starts are attributable to the lightning activity we have been seeing,” said Turcot
Unstable weather began Saturday but hundreds of lightning strikes occurred Tuesday and Turcot said the storms were expected to continue through the week.
Separate blazes in southern B.C. forced evacuation orders for two backcountry resorts: the lodge in Cathedral Provincial Park, south of Princeton, and the Kootenay Park Lodge in Kootenay National Park, near the Alberta boundary.
Flames from a 15-square kilometre fire were creeping closer to the lodge in Cathedral Provincial Park and could cut into the single road leading to it, said Cameron Baugh en, the emergency operations spokesman with the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen.
In southeastern B.C., Parks Canada said its crews are managing several wildfires in Kootenay National and Banff National parks.
One of the lightning-caused fires sparked Tuesday was fanned by high winds overnight and was threatening Kootenay Park Lodge, while several park trails and three day-use areas were also closed.
Flames and heavy smoke also prompted the closure of Highway 93 between Radium and the Alberta boundary.
Increased wildfire activity also led to evacuation alerts for separate wildfires burning east and west of Quesnel in central B.C., while the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen has expanded an evacuation alert to cover nearly 900 properties in the Keremeos and Cawston areas.
The wildfire service lists 10 fires of note, burning across five of B.C.’s six fire centres and Turcot urged extreme caution. He said several of the fires were extremely active Tuesday, driven by high winds.
“We are dealing with a lot of new lightning-driven activity. The last thing we need right now is human-caused fires to divert critical resources away from the fires we are responding to right now,” he said.
Cooler weather and some rain is in the forecast for the upcoming long weekend, but Turcot called the shift a double-edged sword.
“When you get instability, you also get a little bit more wind, and wind can drive fire activity as well.”
The wildfire service has recorded 1,085 wildfires since the season began on April 1, burning nearly 680-square kilometres of woodland.
ONTARIO
More than 500 firefighters are battling the forest fire known as Parry Sound 33 burning in northeastern Ontario.
The fire started on July 18 and has now burned more than 100 square kilometres, says Jonathan Scott, spokesman for Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources.
More than 200 of the firefighters are from Mexico. “Each crew is assigned a team leader who is bilingual and relays orders,” Scott said. “So far, it’s been going really well and everyone is working really well together to suppress this fire.”
The fire has triggered an evacuation order in Killarney, 100 kilometres south of Sudbury. Residents have been advised to take three days’ worth of clothing, food and water with them.
“I lost my husband three years ago and he is everywhere here,” said Donna Butson as she looked around her property in Killarney. “When I don’t have this, I lose a lot more than the buildings.”
In French River — east of Killarney — an evacuation alert has been issued, warning residents in some areas that they should be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice.
Environment Canada says a special air quality statement has been issued for the northern Ontario cities of Sudbury and North Bay due to smoke from forest fires in the area.
The agency says smoke is causing poor air quality and reducing visibility, and warns conditions may deteriorate if the smoke descends to ground level.
QUEBEC
The agency that monitors forest fires in Quebec says lightning strikes sparked 125 forest fires over the course of July.
The Société de protection des forêts contre le feu says the fires burned through 23,000 hectares of forest and compelled calls for reinforcements that saw 400 personnel brought in from the United States and other parts of Canada.
Thus far this summer, the agency has had to deal with 462 fires that burned 28,274 hectares. The record was set in 2005, when 1,258 fires ravaged 386,671 hectares of forest in the province.
Over the past 10 years, the average number of fires as of the end of July is 335, with 34,010 hectares affected.
WE ARE DEALING WITH A LOT OF NEW LIGHTNING DRIVEN ACTIVITY.