Wildfire Season Spreads to New Areas of Canada as Fears Grow for the Future

Wildfires are burning in parts of Canada that have never been affected before, experts have warned, with officials struggling to respond to blazes across the prairies and Atlantic region in the country's second-worst fires on record.

- Leyland Cecco

Road closures, evacuations and travel chaos have become fixtures of Canada's wildfire season. But now fewer are coming from the western provinces, the traditional centre of destruction. Instead, the worst of the fires have been concentrated in the prairie provinces of Western Canada and the Atlantic region, with bone-dry conditions upending how the country responds to a threat that is likely to grow as the climate warms.

In recent weeks, tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes because of the wildfires. Saskatchewan and Manitoba have been the worst hit, covering more than 60% of the area burnt in Canada. But the fires have also strained resources in Atlantic Canada, where officials in Newfoundland and Labrador are struggling to battle out-of-control blazes.

In response to the crisis, the Newfoundland premier, John Hogan, said he would temporarily ban off-road vehicles in forested areas because the province "simply cannot afford any further risks, given the number of out-of-control wildfires we have".

The ban follows a similar move by Nova Scotia, where a 15-hectare (37-acre) fire was burning outside the provincial capital, Halifax. In addition to barring vehicles in wooded areas, officials also banned hiking, camping and fishing in forests.

"Conditions are really dry, there's no rain in sight, the risk is extremely high in Nova Scotia," the province's premier, Tim Houston, told reporters.