At the mercy of the fiery blaze have been since the beginning of summer Northwest Territories of Canadawhere the fires that broke out this year all records have been broken: 140 million acres have burned so far, twice the area of ​​the previous record set in 1989.

Large fires are still burning in the western part of the country, with two fronts joined together.

THE fire resulting from the union of the two fronts in the Suswap area500 kilometers northeast of Vancouver, now extends over an area of ​​more than 410,000 acresaccording to the British Columbia fire service.

“Firefighters are working to prevent the fire from spreading to buildings in the areas where it is still raging through forests and valleys,” the fire department said yesterday on X (formerly Twitter).

The northerly winds blowing favored the spread of the fires of those who they have destroyed many buildings in this tourist area.

On the other side of Okanagan Lake, in west Kelowna, some houses burnedaccording to the authorities, who, however, appear optimistic about the battle against the fires, for the first time since Thursday.

The same time, thousands of panic-stricken residents are still being evacuated from their homes.

THE city ​​of Kelownawith about 150,000 inhabitants located south of the Suswap and which thousands of people have been forced to leavewas still shrouded in smoke yesterday.

Across the province of British Columbia, which has been declared a state of emergency, about 30,000 people have been ordered to evacuate their homes, while another 36,000 are poised to follow, according to local authorities.

Fires are also raging in northern Canadamainly in the capital of the Northwest Territories, Yellowknife, which has been forced to leave almost all of its 20,000 inhabitants.

The situation “constantly changing” in and around Yellowknife, the Canadian Armed Forces announced. Additional troops were deployed to the area yesterday, bringing to around 400 the number of members of the armed forces involved in “ongoing firefighting operations”.

Federal aid

The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pointed to the development “of the Canadian Armed Forces and assets to support the evacuations”while approving British Columbia’s request to receive federal aid, according to his post on X.

“Difficult days ahead”, provincial fire information officer Mike Westwick explained last night. “This fire covers a huge area, so the weather conditions are different at every point,” he added.

“It was a summer different from the others, we notice it all over the countrybe it Nova Scotia, western Canada, where extreme meteorological phenomena were recorded which had enormous effects in the country”Trudeau emphasized during a press conference.

Canada has been facing extreme weather events in recent years the intensity and frequency of which is intensifying due to climate change.