Wildfires in Canada: now foreign firefighters must help

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Given the large wildfires in Canada, more foreign firefighters should help local authorities. More than 300 emergency services from the US and South Africa are expected to arrive in the world’s second-largest country by area in the coming days and assist in the provinces of Nova Scotia and Alberta, according to the Canadian news agency Canadian Press. More than 2,000 firefighters have been deployed in the particularly affected region of Alberta alone, according to public TV channel CBC – 800 of them are from the US, 224 from Australia and New Zealand.

Huge areas have been on fire for weeks in several Canadian provinces. More than 16,000 people were recently forced to leave their homes in the eastern region of Nova Scotia, according to the city of Halifax. According to estimates at the beginning of the week, about 200 buildings were damaged. Forest fires have also been fought in western Canada for weeks. More than 546 fires have destroyed more than a million acres in Alberta this year, according to authorities.

Climate change is to blame

That corresponds to about two thirds of the size of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. According to authorities, more than half of the fires were caused by humans, with 59 fires caused by lightning strikes.

With climate change, experts warn that wildfires will become more frequent and destructive. In western Canada’s prairie provinces, average temperatures have risen 1.9 degrees Celsius since the mid-20th century, according to the Canada Agency for Environment and Climate Change. (SDA)

Source: Blick