Canada’s worst wildfire season in recorded history is still ripping through the country, with more than 5,400 fires burning a staggering 13.1 million hectares of Canadian land according to the latest satellite data — an area larger than Portugal, South Korea or the state of Pennsylvania.
Scorched earth
Although it’s common for fires to rage throughout spring and summer in Canada, there’s been a marked difference in the country’s conditions this year that has enabled the fires to burn like never before — as the country’s firefighters grapple with the worst wildfire season on record.
The nation has experienced an unusually hot and dry spell, which has fueled the conditions allowing for fires to spread across the country, while also dealing with a firefighter crew that's thin on the ground. British Columbia, the province with some of the largest fires (like the Donnie Creek fire), has seen the lowest number of recruit applicants in close to a decade, with some firefighter teams experiencing near 50% turnover.
In more typical seasons, according to a spokesperson from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center, “fires would flare up in one part of the country, then die down and start in another area”, unlike this bout which has seen blazes span almost coast to coast. Although the current fires are mostly concentrated in western Canada, the season’s widespread nature has seen it far eclipse all others since 2003, even with “many weeks” of burning season still to go.
