Quebec is looking internationally for support as it struggles to battle more than 160 forest fires during what federal officials say is shaping up to be among Canada’s worst fire seasons ever.
With more than 480 wilderness firefighters on the ground, Quebec can fight about 30 fires, Quebec Premier Francois Legault told reporters on Monday, adding that normally firefighters would come from other provinces to help.
“When I talk to the premiers of other provinces, they have their hands full,” Legault told a briefing in Quebec City.
Photo: AFP
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 420.
“The situation remains serious,” Canadian Minister of Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair said. “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.”
More than 160 fires have been reported in Quebec including at least 114 that are out of control.
More than 173,000 hectares have burned this year in Quebec’s “intensive protection fire zone” — the area where normally all fires are actively fought — compared with a 10-year average of 247 hectares as of the same date, Quebec’s wildfire prevention agency, SOPFEU said.
Wet weather in the Atlantic coast province of Nova Scotia has allowed that province to free up water bombers to dispatch to Quebec, where wildfires flared up this past weekend.
Legault said an additional 200 firefighters are coming from France and the US, and Quebec is also in talks with Costa Rica, Portugal and Chile as it searches for additional resources.
“With the given projections, it is expected that we have enough resources to cover the summer,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. “If things get worse, we’re developing contingency plans.”
Fires have forced about 10,000 people from their homes in Quebec, with most of those in the northwestern Abitibi region and the eastern Cote-Nord region.
Legault said no lives have been lost in the fires in Quebec, but firefighters were forced to pull back from the hamlet of Clova, Quebec, about 325km northwest of Montreal.
“Unfortunately, we lost control,” Legault said. “We are going to be obliged to let Clova burn.” Authorities said the community’s 36 residents have been evacuated.
Later in the day, officials said the intensity of the fire in the area had exceeded the capacity of water bombers, but it was continuing to work to protect the community.
It said on Twitter that no residences had yet been destroyed, although some cottages might have burned.
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