The smoke from the wildfires in the western United States and Canada has also reached the American east coast. While the plumes fogged the skyscrapers about 5000 kilometers from the fire areas and led to unusual sunrises, the health authorities of large cities such as New York, Washington and Philadelphia warned of pollutants in the air. For Manhattan, for example, the Air Quality Index (AQI) on Wednesday showed a value of 157. From a value of 100 on, the air quality is particularly unhealthy for the elderly, pre-ill and pregnant women, and from a value of 150 on, effects can also be felt by healthy people. In total, meteorologists issued warnings for more than 40 million Americans.
In the west of the country, thousands of firefighters tried to contain almost 80 fires. The California Dixie Fire, which broke out north of Sacramento nine days ago, spread over 370 square kilometers by Thursday. As the California Forest and Fire Protection Agency (Cal Fire) reported, it has only been able to be contained to 15 percent so far. About 900 houses and stables in the Butte and Plumas districts continued to be threatened by flames on Thursday. Strong gusts of wind drove the flames away from Paradise, which was almost completely destroyed by the camp fire three years ago. The Butte County sheriff ordered evacuations on Wednesday for the west coast of Lake Almanor, about 70 kilometers away, which has been covered in clouds of orange smoke for days.“Apocalyptic,” wrote photographer Jake Edwards, who lives in the region, on Facebook under a collection of photos.
The Tamarack fire also continued to burn uncontrollably. After the heat wave of recent weeks and a historic drought, it spread over almost 180 square kilometers in the Humboldt-Toiyabe national forest on the border with the state of Nevada by Thursday. Cal Fire used fire-fighting planes and helicopters. Nevertheless, the authorities reported by Thursday that the fire could not be contained. The biggest fire of the 2021 fire season to date, the Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon, has meanwhile grown to almost 1,500 square kilometers, an area larger than Los Angeles. At least 2000 residents of the rural region had to leave their homes and around 170 buildings burned down. Meteorologists pointed to the enormous speed of the bootleg fire, which causes the emergence of its own weather phenomena such as sooty pyrocumulus clouds,also called clouds of fire.
After about 300 wildfires broke out, the province of British Columbia in western Canada declared a state of emergency on Tuesday. "We are preparing for a mass evacuation scenario," said Mike Farnworth, provincial public security minister. With record temperatures caused by a heat bell over the west of the country, lightning had triggered dozens of fires in British Columbia in the past few weeks. The village of Lytton, where the highest temperature in Canada was recorded at 47.9 degrees Celsius, burned down. In the past few days, the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario have also reported dozens of wildfires. To prevent further outbreaks, Canadian Transport Minister Omar Alghabra has now announced thatto reduce the speed of trains at temperatures of more than 30 degrees. Train drivers were obliged to report smaller fires along the route in the future.
In Northern California, where fires repeatedly break out due to defects in overhead lines, the utility company Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has announced that it will lay more than 15,000 kilometers of pipeline underground. “We finally want a safe solution,” said PG&E boss Patricia Poppe on Wednesday during a visit to the Butte district. Due to insufficiently maintained power lines, the camp fire broke out there in autumn 2018, in which 85 people died and the place Paradise was destroyed. The Dixie fire that is now burning in the region is also likely due to defective lines.