OTTAWA, May 29 (WAM/APP/DNA):More than 17,000 people in Canada’s western Manitoba province were being evacuated as the region experienced its worst start to a wildfire season in years.
“The Manitoba government has declared a province-wide state of emergency due to the wildfire situation,” Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew told a news conference. “This is the largest evacuation Manitoba will have seen in most people’s living memory,” he said.
Military aircraft, Kinew said, would be deployed “imminently” to help move people out of endangered remote northern communities to safety, along with additional firefighting resources.
Premier Kinew said the widespread nature of the fires was cause for alarm. “For the first time, it’s not a fire in one region, we have fires in every region. That is a sign of a changing climate that we are going to have to adapt to,” Kinew said.
Nearly 200,000 hectares of forests have been scorched in just the past month, or triple the annual average over the previous five years, Kirstin Hayward of the Manitoba wildfire service said. “Manitoba has the highest fire activity in Canada so far this year, due in part to a prolonged period of warm and dry conditions,” she said.
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.
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