Huge wildfires have been raging out of control for days in Canada, prompting the Northwest Territories of British Columbia to declare a state of emergency and tens of thousands of residents to be evacuated even by military planes.

Residents of Yellowknife, the Northwest’s largest city, were ordered on Wednesday to evacuate by Friday as the city is now under serious threat due to the spread of wildfires.

“Unfortunately, the bushfire situation has taken a turn for the worse (…) west of Yellowknife” and there is now a “real threat” to citizens, said Shane Thompson, minister for the environment in the Northwest Territories, ordering the evacuation of city ​​of 20,000 inhabitants until tomorrow at noon.

“It breaks my heart to think of the people in TNO who are struggling with the devastating forest fires,” said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the X network (formerly Twitter).

Canada, which due to its geographical location, is warming faster than the rest of the planet, has been faced in recent years with extreme weather events, the intensity and frequency of which are increasing due to climate warming.