Today's Edition
OTTAWA (AFP)
A firefighter was hospitalised and thousands of people in Canada's Manitoba province faced possible emergency evacuations on Wednesday as it experienced its worst wildfire season start in years.
Eighteen fires are active in the province. Nearly 200,000 hectares of forests have been scorched in just the past month, or triple the annual average over the previous five years, according to officials.
Climate change has increased the impact of extreme weather events in Canada.
"Manitoba has the highest fire activity in Canada so far this year, due in part to a prolonged period of warm and dry conditions," Kirstin Hayward of the Manitoba wildfire service told a news conference.
A firefighter was severely injured this week while battling blazes and was being treated in hospital, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said.
About 1,000 residents of Lynn Lake and Marcel Colomb First Nation have been ordered evacuated, while 6,000 residents of Flin Flon were told Wednesday to prepare to flee on short notice.
"We're asking people to get ready," said Kinew.
"The situation is dynamic and it is changing hour to hour," said Christine Stevens, assistant deputy minister for Manitoba's emergency management organisation, adding that the Flin Flon hospital had already started moving patients out.
Kinew noted that hotels in the regional capital Winnipeg were already full of wildfire evacuees and visitors for events.
"We're going to be turning to other folks in the community, not necessarily private residences, but companies and communities across the province to potentially open your doors" to displaced residents, he said.
Evacuees in Manitoba currently number in the hundreds, while neighboring Saskatchewan and Alberta have ordered more than 5,000 people to evacuate from remote towns.
Earlier this month two residents of the small community of Lac du Bonnet died after being trapped in a major wildfire northeast of Winnipeg.
In 2023, the worst wildfire season in the country's history, the only recorded deaths were among firefighters.
There are currently 134 active fires across Canada, including in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario.
Half are considered out of control.
