Fires in Canada: Quebec affected in turn and forced to evacuate 11,000 people

Europe 1 with AFP 12:30 pm, June 03, 2023

The fires are spreading rapidly in eastern Canada, where Quebec is also plagued by more than a hundred fires that forced it to order the evacuation of more than 11,000 residents on Friday. "It's a scary time for a lot of people from coast to coast to coast," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday. The country is facing one of the most catastrophic springs on the fire front, with almost every province affected by massive fires that have forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate in recent weeks.

After the west of the country and the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan in early May, it is the turn of the east, with Nova Scotia and Quebec, to be affected by huge fires due to hot and dry weather. In total, more than 2.7 million hectares have already burned in 2023 in the country, eight times more than the average of the last 30 years, according to Canadian authorities. And there are currently 214 active fires, 93 of which are out of control across the country.

New fires in Quebec

In Quebec, the authorities had asked the population not to go into the forest in order to limit the risk of accidental fires - most of them are indeed of human origin (cigarette butts or campfires poorly extinguished). But this was not enough and the province was confronted with many fires in a few hours, especially in the regions near the St. Lawrence River, while others progressed strongly in the night from Thursday to Friday.

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Late Friday afternoon, the province announced it was calling on the Canadian military, including assistance in transporting emergency equipment, food and fuel. "The situation is changing rapidly in Quebec," said Stéphane Lauzon, a Quebec MP.

"There are about 10,000 people who are evacuated preventively on the side of Sept-Îles, there are about 1,000 on the side of Chapais," said François Bonnardel, the minister of public security Friday. Hundreds of firefighters from the United States, Mexico, South Africa and Portugal were called in as reinforcements.

Relief expected

Authorities are hoping that rain and cooler weather forecast for the weekend, after a record-breaking heat wave, will bring relief. "The weather conditions favoured the fires all week, not the firefighters. We hope that will change soon," Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said Friday.

"There are no deaths to deplore but many lives have been disrupted," he added, speaking of "breathtaking damage". Unaccustomed to being confronted with gigantic fires unlike Western Canada, the small province located on the Canadian Atlantic coast is facing this year the largest fires ever recorded.

In the evacuated suburb of Halifax, many homes and buildings were destroyed, leaving residents in shock. "The house is gone. The hangar is gone. Everything is gone. On our property, there is nothing left," resident Jason Young told reporters.

Canada, which is warming faster than the rest of the planet because of its geographic location, has been facing extreme weather events in recent years, the intensity and frequency of which are increased by climate change.