Approximately 9,000 individuals have been relocated in northeastern Canada due to severe wildfires, according to officials on Saturday. Residents of Labrador City and Wabush in Newfoundland and Labrador province were instructed to vacate their homes, stated provincial fire duty officer Jeff Motty. "We are witnessing extreme fire behavior out there. The fire is advancing at about 50 meters per minute," Motty explained. Images circulating on social media depicted queues of vehicles at gas stations, with the sky obscured by vast clouds of smoke.
"It was quite a shock to see that much smoke," remarked Labrador City resident Stacy Hunt in an interview with public broadcaster CBC. "And it's been in pretty much the same place for hours now." In this isolated region, residents must travel over 500 kilometers (310 miles) east along the sole available road to evacuate. Motty noted that the fire's intensity rendered water bombers ineffective.
On Saturday morning, Labrador City's mayor, Belinda Adams, reiterated the call for residents to evacuate. "The fire remains active," she stated in a video shared on social media. Federal authorities reported on Friday that the weather had been conducive to suppressing fires since the beginning of summer, but cautioned that the country was entering the peak wildfire season. Last year, Canada experienced its most severe fire season on record.
Drier and hotter conditions across many parts of the country, attributed to climate change, have heightened the risk of major fires in recent years, according to experts. Currently, Canada is contending with 575 active fires, over 400 of which are deemed out of control. Numerous fires have erupted in recent days, particularly in the western part of the country which has been under a heat wave.
