Authorities have ordered the evacuation of about 9,000 people as wildfires rage in northeastern Canada. Residents of Labrador City and Wabush in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador were asked to evacuate their homes due to “the extreme behavior of the fire.”
Photos posted online showed long lines of cars outside gas stations as huge plumes of smoke darkened the sky. “When I saw the smoke, it was a shock,” Labrador City resident Stacy Hunt told the CBC public broadcaster. “There’s only one place we can go. We don’t have many options,” he added.
In the remote region north of the province of Quebec, people have little choice: they must drive more than 500 kilometers east on the only road to safety.
Use of fire-fighting aircraft impossible
“We are observing extreme fire behavior. It is moving forward about 50 meters per minute,” said fire department spokesman Jeff Motty. Due to the intensity of the fire, the use of firefighting aircraft was impossible.
Labrador Mayor Belinda Adams warned the last remaining residents to leave the city because “the fire is still active” in a video posted online early Saturday. The last buses were expected to leave the city around noon.
Federal authorities said Friday that the size of the wildfires since the start of the summer had been limited by favorable weather conditions. Now the country is heading into its most significant wildfire season. According to official figures, 1.5 million hectares of forest have burned so far this year, which is more “average.”
The worst forest fire season last year
Last year, Canada experienced its worst wildfire season on record. More than 15 million hectares of land burned and eight firefighters died. A total of 230,000 people were evacuated in 2023.
Source: Krone
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