Guy Boisvert and his wife, Shirley Gallon, take refuge at the Roberval emergency centre in Roberval, Que., on June 7, 2023.Renaud Philippe/The New York Times
Hundreds of wildfires continue to rage in several provinces including Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia, even as firefighters make progress in some areas – triggering new evacuations over the weekend and preventing other residents from returning home.
In Quebec, Minister of Natural Resources and Forests Maïté Blanchette Vézina said Sunday that the wildfire situation was getting better as foreign resources continue to arrive, but that it remained difficult in the province’s north and northwest.
“We went from a reactive mode to an offensive mode,” she said in a news conference, underscoring that more fires are now under control. But residents of communities such as Chibougamau and Lebel-sur-Quévillon should not expect to return home before later this week, the minister added, when much-needed rain is in the forecast.
More than 14,000 people were under evacuation orders in Quebec Sunday, the minister’s office said, and more than 1,000 personnel – including domestic and foreign firefighters and Canadian Armed Forces members – were at work fighting 38 blazes.
This remained a fraction of the 117 wildfires raging Sunday across the province’s “intensive zone,” covering most of the inhabited territory. So far, wildfires have burned more than 740,000 hectares in the zone, which is more than 300 times the average at this time of year for the past decade.
Wildfires raging in Quebec, Alberta and B.C., triggering new evacuations
Saturday’s national snapshot from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre showed more than 400 active fires across the country, nearly half of them still out of control.
With 2,458 fires recorded and 4.6 million hectares burned this year as of Saturday, according to the centre, this has been the most active start to a wildfire season on record.
In Western Alberta, the town of Edson was evacuated Friday for the second time this spring after a fire burning near the community of about 8,400 people jumped fire guards and moved closer to populated areas.
In a video update Sunday, town and county officials said the fire still represented a threat and the evacuation order remained in place.
“We’re in a little bit of a lull right now but we do expect things to progress if the temperatures come up and the winds come up, so we’re not out of the woods yet,” Edson Mayor Wade Williams said.
Town of Edson, Alberta evacuated due to wildfire danger
An unprecedented start to the wildfire season led to a weeks-long state of emergency and a peak of about 29,000 people evacuated from their homes in various Albertan communities last month, including Edson residents for three days in early May.
On Friday afternoon, before the evacuation order was issued for Edson and the surrounding area, about 3,500 Albertans remained out of their homes.
There were 76 active wildfires in the province Sunday, according to the Alberta Wildfire Status Dashboard, including 24 deemed out of control.
More than 400 wildfires still active in Canada
In B.C., the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality, in the province’s northeast corner, issued an evacuation order for the Ittsi Creek and Maxhamish Lake area Saturday night because of “immediate danger to life safety caused by a wildfire,” adding to evacuation orders in place for the Peace River Regional District and the District of Tumbler Ridge.
An advisory published Saturday by the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure said that Highway 4, on Vancouver Island, would remain closed throughout the weekend because of a wildfire near Cameron Lake.
“Damage to the road and instability of the slope above the highway means this closure is likely to last beyond the fire itself,” the ministry said. A four-hour detour route is established by way of industrial forest roads, but its use is recommended for essential travel only, isolating communities on the Island’s west coast such as Tofino. An update is expected on Monday.
After rain brought respite Friday and Saturday, the Cameron Bluffs wildfire remained out of control and saw significant growth Sunday as hot, dry weather came back, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service.
There were 83 active wildfires in the province, including 25 deemed out of control according to the online provincial emergency map Sunday.