The arrival of rain in the eastern part of Canada, which has been hit for almost a week by unprecedented fires, has helped firefighters in Nova Scotia, although the situation in Quebec remains critical.

85% of the fire that threatened Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, has been brought under control and now the situation is “stable”, the authorities announced during a press conference yesterday Saturday.

“It’s awesome,” said Dave Meldrum, deputy chief of regional fire and emergency services. “It wasn’t a storm that fell and disappeared. The water will be able to penetrate the ground more effectively”, he underlined, while in Nova Scotia new rains are expected in the coming days.

“That being said, the fire has not been extinguished and will not be extinguished for some time,” recalled Dave Steeves of the regional Department of Natural Resources.

By Friday night half of the 16,000 people who were forced to leave their homes in the neighborhoods of northeast Halifax were able to return to their homes.

“I can tell you that the rain has boosted the morale of the troops,” Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said after meeting with scores of displaced families at reception centers in the province’s southwest, where the latest fire in the province is still raging. province that remains out of control out of the five that are active in total.

“It is the largest fire in the history of Nova Scotia, and it remains a terrorist one,” he emphasized.

Meanwhile the Canadian Armed Forces and American firefighters are expected to arrive in the area today, as well as firefighters from Halifax.

Out of control

In Quebec, the wildfire that forced more than 10,000 people to evacuate their homes in the area around Sette Ile in the northern part of the province remains “out of control,” authorities said.

More than 130 fires, 80 of which are out of control, remain active in Quebec and forced another 2,000 people to flee a town and an aboriginal community on Friday night.

Canada, which due to its geographical location is much more quickly affected by global warming compared to the rest of the world, has been experiencing extreme weather events in recent years, the intensity and frequency of which are increasing due to climate change.