More than 25,000 people across central Canada have been forced to leave their homes to escape dozens of wildfires that have reduced air quality and visibility there and in some US states along the border.
Around 17,000 people living in Manitoba, a province in central Canada, which declared a state of emergency last week, were relocated, along with about 8,000 in neighbouring Saskatchewan and roughly 1,300 from Alberta. However, officials have warned that more could follow.
Saskatchewan’s Public Safety Agency said air quality and visibility due to wildfire smoke “can fluctuate over short distances and can vary considerably from hour to hour. As smoke levels increase, health risks increase.”
Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe blamed recent hot, dry weather, warning resources to fight the fires and support the evacuees are stretched thin.
Mr Moe told reporters the next four to seven days “are absolutely critical until we can find our way to changing weather patterns, and ultimately a soaking rain throughout the north”.
More than 5,000 people have been forced to flee from Flin Flon, around 400 miles northwest of the provincial capital of Winnipeg.
Fire crews have struggled to control the fire threatening the town, which started a week ago near Creighton in Saskatchewan, but quickly crossed into Manitoba.
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Water bombers have been intermittently grounded due to heavy smoke and a drone incursion.
On Friday, 175 active fires were burning, of which 95 were out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.
A mandatory evacuation order was issued in Cranberry Portage in northern Manitoba, where around 600 people live, after fire knocked out the power supply.
The US Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service deployed an air tanker to Alberta and said it would send 150 firefighters and equipment to Canada.
Unhealthy air quality levels were recorded on Sunday in North Dakota and small areas of Montana, Minnesota and South Dakota, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow page.
US National Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Jackson said people could expect “at least a couple more rounds of Canadian smoke to come through the US over the next week”.
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Separately, a fire in the US border state of Idaho burned 50 acres and prompted road closures, according to Idaho State Police.
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Evacuation centres have opened across Manitoba for those fleeing the fires, one as far south as Winkler, 12 miles from the US border.
Canada’s wildfire season runs from May through to September and its worst one was in 2023, when dirty smoke blew across North America, famously spreading ominous, orange-tinted skies to New York.
