According to AFP, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that the country is experiencing one of the most serious forest fire seasons ever, with nearly 1,000 fires breaking out, burning down forest areas equivalent to the area of Belgium.
Although it is only mid-summer, most provinces and territories of Canada are affected by forest fires.
The largest fire currently in Ontario province has caused many people to evacuate, while creating smoke spreading far to the East Coast of the United States.
Although recent rains have somewhat limited the fire from spreading widely, as of July 20 (local time), Canada still has more than 200 uncontrolled forest fires.
The Canadian government has mobilized more than 5,000 firefighters, about 300 firefighting aircraft and armed forces to participate in response.
To date, about 3 million hectares of forest have been burned down by fire.
In Quebec province, local authorities said that support forces from the US and France have been present since last weekend to reduce pressure on firefighting teams working at high intensity in the northwest of the province.
According to the Canadian Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, prolonged heat waves along with low rainfall and drought are identified as factors that make the wildfire season increasingly fierce.
Professor Yves Bergeron - Forest Research Center of Quebec University in Montreal - said that extinguishing the entire fire is almost impossible because most of it occurred in remote areas, which cannot be accessed by road.
Canada currently has about 270 million hectares of Taiga forest, accounting for 28% of the global Taiga forest area. This is an ecosystem that frequently experiences forest fires caused by lightning strikes.
Along with that, the dense density of trees makes the fire spread quickly and very difficult to control. Unlike the forests in California (USA), the Taiga forest is almost impossible to apply sparse pruning measures to reduce the risk of fire.
Mr. Bergeron warned that climate change is reducing the recovery capacity of forests. Each year, about 0.5-1% of Canada's forest area is burned, but the frequency and intensity of fires are increasing due to heat, drought and reduced rainfall.
Although not as serious as the record wildfire season of 2023 with nearly 18 million hectares burned down, this year's fire season is still forecast to be more serious if the drought in northern and western Canada lasts.
The fires spreading near residential areas also increased the risk of having to continue deploying evacuations.
Experts believe that Canada needs to promote preventive measures, planning residential areas in the direction of reducing the risk of being surrounded by forests and proactively adapting to increasingly extreme forest fire seasons.
