Live wildfire updates in Canada for June 8: U.S. firefighters en route, says Trudeau

U.S. firefighters ready to deploy to Canada, Biden says

U.S. President Joe Biden has ordered all of his country’s federal firefighting personnel to be ready to deploy to Canada as raging wildfires north of the border blanket northeastern U.S. cities in a thick, smoky haze.

Mr. Biden said Thursday he had offered Ottawa any help it requests to battle the blazes, including air tanker planes. He said the U.S. had already deployed 600 firefighters, some of them smokejumpers – firefighters who parachute into the middle of forest fires – and “hot shot” crews that are specially trained to fight the hottest parts of the blazes.

“I’ve decided, dictated the National Interagency Fire Center respond promptly to Canadian requests for additional firefighters and fire suppression assets,” Mr. Biden announced at the White House ahead of a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Explainer: How does wildfire smoke affect air quality and your health?

The President informed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of his actions during a phone call late Wednesday. In a statement, Mr. Biden described the fires as “another stark reminder of the impacts of climate change.”

The presidential action comes as New York, Washington, and other major U.S. cities suffer unprecedently bad air quality because of the blazes. The U.S. west coast has dealt with similar problems for years, but this marks the first time in recent memory that the country’s political and economic centres of power have seen such direct effects from forest fires.

Mr. Trudeau tweeted that more U.S. firefighters are “en route” and that he had thanked Mr. Biden for his “critical support.”

“We’re seeing more and more of these fires because of climate change. These fires are affecting everyday routines, lives and livelihoods,” he wrote.

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After a record-breaking day for poor air quality in New York City Wednesday – when the U.S.’s largest city hit 484 on the Air Quality Index – the smog largely moved south Thursday, pushing Washington’s quality to 237, its worst so far.

Local officials in the U.S. capital advised residents to wear KN95 masks outside and stay indoors as much as possible, as the scent of campfire permeated city streets. The National Zoo closed down for the day “for the safety of our animals, our staff and our guests.” The White House postponed an outdoor event marking Pride Month.

Both New York and Philadelphia, which at times rated as the cities with the world’s worst air quality, postponed baseball games Wednesday night. At one point Thursday morning, all flights arriving at Philadelphia’s airport were stopped because of poor visibility, while flights into New York’s LaGuardia were delayed.

The cover of the New York Post on Thursday featured a photo of the Manhattan skyline shrouded in a Venusian yellow haze with the headline “Blame Canada!” The paper described the smog as “the unhealthiest thing to come out of Canada since poutine” under a banner of Canadian flags and the tagline “Eh!pocalypse Now.”

Congressman Dan Goldman, who represents Lower Manhattan, told The Globe and Mail that he hoped the crisis would push legislators to take more action on climate change.

“The silver lining, if there ever is a silver lining in these types of disastrous events, is that it starts to impact people who are otherwise not impacted on a daily basis,” he said in an interview outside the Capitol. “We have many Republican members of Congress who are climate deniers or don’t believe that we need legislation to combat climate change. They’re breathing this air today, as well, just like we are.”

The U.S. last year passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which included subsidies for green energy infrastructure. Congress passed the measures on strictly partisan lines, with all Republican legislators either voting against the Act or not voting.

One prominent climate denier, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, appeared to suggest Canada’s desire to fight climate change was somehow responsible for the fires. “New York has the worst air quality in history due to wild fires from Climate Cult Canada,” she tweeted.

Ms. Greene once famously floated a conspiracy theory that 2018 wildfires in California were actually started by a space laser.

U.S. cable news channels showed frequent live views of New York and Washington’s haze-shrouded skylines.

While air quality in Ottawa improved, further south, towards the Greater Toronto Area and in areas around Sudbury and North Bay, conditions remained poor.

There are also many warnings of moderate or high risks due to bad air quality in parts of British Columbia and Alberta and Environment Canada’s air quality forecast suggests things will remain at unhealthy levels in most of southern Ontario and in western Canada through Friday.

– Adrian Morrow, The Canadian Press

What’s happening in Quebec

Quebec’s precarious wildfire situation is expected to remain stable over the next 48 hours but the roughly 13,500 residents displaced by the raging forest fires likely won’t be able to return home until early next week, Premier François Legault said Thursday.

The province’s forest fire agency — Société de protection des forêts contre le feu — says there are 150 active fires in the province and that so far more than 639,000 hectares have burned, representing the worst fire season on record.

The wildfire fight is focused today in the province’s northern region where flames have reached within 500 metres of Normétal, Que., a municipality of roughly 800 people located 720 kilometres northwest of Montreal.

The government was also focusing efforts on Lebel-sur-Quévillon, Que., a northern municipality where 2,100 people were evacuated and where two separate large fires risked merging. A wildfire was located about 15 kilometres outside of town.

What’s happening in Ontario

Environment and Climate Change Canada has issued a special air quality statement for Toronto, warning of high levels of pollution and deteriorated air quality as a result of smoke from the fires. It says poor air quality may persist into the weekend.

The Toronto District School Board and the York Region District School Board have moved recess and other outdoor events indoors today, while the Toronto Catholic District School Board says its schools can consider indoor recess based on the air quality health index.

There were 56 active forest fires in Ontario on Thursday, with 27 listed out of control, the province said.

Fire adviser Shayne McCool with Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry said active fires to date this year stood at 180, a significant jump from the 10-year-average of 157 by this time of year.

What’s happening in Nova Scotia

The Tantallon fire that destroyed 151 homes and caused more than 16,000 people to flee their homes has been contained. Emergency alerts will be sent Friday explaining how access will be granted to various neighbourhoods in the Upper Tantallon and Hammonds Plains areas.

About 4,000 people were still waiting to return to their homes northwest of the city’s downtown. Most of those people were expected to be given approval to return home before Friday afternoon, but another group could expect to wait longer.

Meanwhile, the Barrington Lake fire, which has damaged or destroyed at least 60 homes and cottages, remains out of control.

What’s happening in B.C.

For the first time this year, air quality advisories are posted for part of Vancouver Island and a large section of the Lower Mainland because of wildfire smoke.

An immediate evacuation order has been issued for residents of the British Columbia District of Tumbler Ridge, a community of 2,400 people in northeastern B.C., due to the threat posed by an encroaching wildfire.

Two out-of-control wildfires east of Vancouver plus a blaze on Vancouver Island are contributing to the smudgy skies. A shift in weather could cut the smoke and the weather office says showers are likely across the lower quarter of the province on Friday, possibly bringing as much as 10 millimetres of rain to the Squamish, Sechelt, Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley regions before weekend sun and heat return. No showers are due in parts of parched northeastern B.C. until at least next week.

The B.C. Wildfire Service reports more than 80 active fires across B.C., including one on Vancouver Island east of Port Alberni that has grown to nearly 1.5-square kilometres, closing Highway 4, the key route leading to that city and the west coast of the Island.

A blaze that was only spotted Tuesday south of Dawson Creek now covers 96 square kilometres near the Alberta boundary, forcing the Peace River Regional District to expand an evacuation order late Wednesday.