Wildfire risk remains well above average across Canada this month
— Canada is on track to have the worst fire season it has ever seen and the risk of wildfires will remain well above average in most of the country throughout the summer, the federal government warned Monday.
At the rate fires are spreading across the country, the total land area burned could surpass the all-time annual high by next week. “The situation remains serious,” Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair said as he and six other federal cabinet minister gave an update on the situation. “The images that we have seen so far this season are some of the most severe we have we have ever witnessed in Canada and the current forecast for the next few months indicates the potential for continued higher-than-normal fire activity.”
As Blair spoke in downtown Ottawa, smoke from fires north and west of the city had settled over Parliament Hill, clouding the Peace Tower in a grey haze.
On Friday afternoon there were 324 fires burning across Canada.
As of Monday morning that had grown to 413, and by late afternoon, the total jumped again to 424.
More than 250 fires were burning out of control, stretched across nine provinces and two territories.
As of June 5, more than 2,200 fires had been recorded this year.
They have so far burned 36,000 square kilometres of land — an area more than five times the size of Banff National Park, and more than the annual totals for all but four previous years.
The most land ever burned in a single year was 46,000 square kilometres in 2014.
Over the weekend, an average of about 1,800 square kilometres burned each day. If that pace keeps up, the 2023 total will surpass 2014 within the next week.