Dangerous wildfires in the Canadian providence of Manitoba are spreading out of control, and have led to a state of emergency order with 17,000 people forced to evacuate.
“This is the largest evacuation Manitoba will have seen in most people’s living memory,” Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said in a news conference on Wednesday.
The Canadian Armed Forces are being deployed to the region to assist in moving people and firefighting, Kinew said. He added that the military will be able to fly people to safety “in hours instead of days”.
Earlier this month, two people died from fire after becoming trapped in a rural community outside of Winnipeg. The area was under mandatory evacuation at the time.
Kinew said that many evacuees will be housed at sports venues and community centres in Winnipeg and other cities.
“This is a moment of fear and uncertainty. This is a moment of concern,” he said.
“But I want to tell you that your fellow Manitobans will welcome you. We will get through this difficult period and we’ll get through this trying period the way that we always do: by working together.”
One resident of the city of Flin Flon, which is under evacuation orders, told CBC News that she could “barely breathe” as she was packing up to leave.
“The town is absolutely smoked out here… We’re just kind of in a panic here,” said Elsaida Alerta.
A resident of Creighton, a town to the west of Flin Flon, told CBC that the sight of the entire town driving in a convoy away from their homes felt “surreal”.
“Just seeing everybody exit the community all in a panic was really emotional,” said Dawn Hlady.
Other communities not currently under evacuation orders have been told to prepare to leave in case the situation changes suddenly.
The two people killed earlier this month in Manitoba have been identified as married couple Sue and Richard Nowell. A fundraiser set up for their children says they died after becoming trapped by rapidly spreading wildfire in their property at Lac Du Bonnet.
More than 166 fires are actively burning across Canada, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. As of Thursday, 84 of those fires have been deemed “out of control”, with major blazes also in the provinces of Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia.
Smoke from the wildfires is expected to drift south towards Minnesota in the US – triggering air quality alerts.
By Friday, it is expected to reach the cities of Minneapolis, Detroit, and Chicago.
Canada had its worst wildfire season on record in 2023 when over 42m acres (17.3m hectares) burned, which was an area larger than all of England and more than double the previous record.
Scientists have linked worsening wildfire seasons to climate change, an issue that affects Canada significantly. The country is warming at a rate twice as that of the global average due to its large land mass, and its Arctic region is warming three times as fast.
BBC
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