Canada: Army helps fight fires, millions of hectares of forest burned

(Patria) - The Canadian army was deployed on Sunday in the far north of the country to combat hundreds of wildfires that are out of control, as residents of several remote communities fled the spreading inferno, AFP reported.

Meanwhile, the province of British Columbia, on the country's Pacific coast, prepared for a heatwave expected to further fuel the fires burning there.

"We stand with the people of the Northwest Territories as they deal with serious wildfires," Defence Minister Bill Blair said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"In response to a request for assistance, the Canadian Armed Forces will provide support for firefighting, airlift, and planning, coordination, and logistics," he said.

The number of troops deployed was not disclosed, but the Canadian army has sent hundreds of soldiers to four other provinces in recent months to help fight wildfires alongside nearly 11,000 firefighters, including 5,000 brought in from abroad.

This fire season, fires have spread across the country with exceptional intensity, forcing 168,000 Canadians to flee their homes and burning 13.5 million hectares, nearly double the area of the last record of 7.3 million hectares, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC). Four people have died in this year's fires.

The fires have released an unprecedented amount of carbon dioxide, more than one billion tonnes, which is almost the same amount that 217 million cars would produce annually, or approximately Japan's annual emissions.

Over the weekend, several communities in the Northwest Territories were ordered to evacuate, including the 2,500 residents of Fort Smith, as 233 wildfires raged across 2.1 million hectares of boreal forest.

Environment Canada, meanwhile, warned that temperatures in Vancouver and other parts of British Columbia, where 390 wildfires are burning, would rise by Wednesday.

However, temperatures are not expected to reach the record highs of June 2021, when mercury reached 49.6 degrees Celsius in Lytton before the village was devastated days later by a fire that killed at least two residents.

Cultus Lake, east of Vancouver, was Canada's hotspot on Sunday, with 31.1 degrees Celsius. Parts of British Columbia are forecast to reach 40 degrees Celsius this week.