Lightning-triggered wildfires spread across western Canada as evacuation orders mount

Fresh wildfires have broken out in western Canada as the country continues to battle what Prime Minister Mark Carney has described as one of its most intense wildfire seasons on record. Nearly 34,000 lightning strikes over the past week have triggered a series of new fires in southern British Columbia, while forests continue to burn in Ontario. The latest outbreaks have added to an already severe national emergency, with authorities warning that warm and drying conditions could allow the blazes to grow.

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In British Columbia, officials said there were 25 evacuation orders in place and 90 active wildfires as of Friday morning. One cluster of fires near Kimberley, about 320 miles, or 520 kilometres, from Vancouver, has drawn particular concern. Hugh Murdoch, the incident commander for that cluster, said the weather forecast was "far from favourable" and that there was "no significant help from mother nature whatsoever in the foreseeable future." Ontario is also facing a large number of fires, with 139 active wildfires in the province's north-west and 32 of them not under control.

Environment Canada issued an air quality alert for Banff, Alberta, and surrounding areas on Friday, although it said conditions were expected to improve for most places over the weekend. The federal government has said it will mobilise more than 5,300 firefighters and about 300 water bombers, helicopters and evacuation aircraft to support the response. The fires matter well beyond the provinces directly affected because Canada is already in one of its most severe wildfire seasons in recent years.

About 2.95 million hectares, or 7.29 million acres, have burned this year, above the 10-year average of about 2.55 million hectares. Canada currently has more active wildfires than it did at the same time in either of the past two years, underscoring the scale of the challenge facing provincial and federal authorities. The situation also has wider regional implications because smoke from Canadian wildfires has already drifted across large US east coast and midwestern cities in recent weeks.

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The fires have been fuelled by intense heat and lightning storms linked by authorities to warmer temperatures, and they have burned remote forests across the country this summer. Thousands of people, including some First Nations communities, have been evacuated, adding to the humanitarian strain. Canada's forested areas account for 28% of the world's boreal forests, making the country's fire seasons significant for global carbon emissions, air quality and ecosystem damage.

Carney said Mexico would send as many as 200 firefighters in the coming weeks, while Quebec has already benefited from help from neighbouring provinces, France and the United States as some blazes there have been brought under control. What remains unclear is how long the dry and warm conditions will persist in the west, how many more fires lightning may ignite, and whether the current reinforcements will be enough to prevent further escalation.

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