“My new home is my vacation trailer,” said Margo Wagner, chief of a district in British Columbia who is among the evacuees. This is the second time in four years that his home in Canim Lake, a rural area in central that province, has been threatened by fire.
The province declared a state of emergency on Monday due to the advance of forest fires. More than 5,700 people have been ordered to evacuate and more than 32,000 are on evacuation alert.
“We did it in 2017 and we’re going to do it again. Stressful? D scared? Of course,” she said calmly.
Other neighboring towns are preparing for the worst, because the weather conditions (wind and heat) will not give respite to the 3,180 deployed firefighters.
“I have lived in Ashcroft for almost 25 years and have never seen anything like it,” said Mayor Barbara Roden, whose city in the center of the province has been on high alert since July 14. .
“The scariest thing that we will be in mid-July. There is still a long way to go in the season and we don’t expect rain,” he lamented.
The Canadian armed forces are preparing to send 350 additional troops to British Columbia and 120 to Manitoba, a central province which also faces major epidemics, according to National Defense spokesman John Nethercott.
– Fire creates its own climate –
In Ontario, approximately 75 military personnel assist local firefighters.
South of the border with the United States, firefighters are fighting fires so large that they now generate their “own climate,” Marcus Kauffman of the state forest management service told AFP.
“It creates its own rays and sends them back,” he continued.
Nearly 80 major fires devastate hundreds of thousands of acres in California, Montana and Nevada.
Most impressive remains Bootleg in Oregon, which burned down the equivalent of Los Angeles’ vegetation and forests in two weeks.
But the 2,300 firefighters deployed are “up to the task” and “have arguably helped protect hundreds of homes” in the region, said Ian Yocum, head of fire management, on Wednesday.
In neighboring California, several towns had to be evacuated due to rising flames from the Dixie fire, which may have been caused by a tree falling on the power lines of a major supplier, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E;).
The company had previously pleaded guilty to causing the deadliest fire in recent California history, due to faulty lines, very close to where the Dixie fire is wreaking havoc.
And this Wednesday, announced the intention to bury thousands of kilometers of power lines, starting with those located in areas conducive to the start of fires to avoid new disasters.
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