Canada Faces Over 800 Uncontrolled Wildfires Amid Nationwide Crisis
Canada is grappling with more than 800 active wildfires across the country, with 223 classified as out of control, according to a Monday update from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC).
The fires are unusually widespread, stretching from the West Coast to the Atlantic Provinces and northern regions, marking one of the most severe wildfire seasons in the nation’s history.
Among the affected areas is Jasper National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The popular tourist destination has been burning for weeks, forcing park officials to close it to visitors and cancel all camping reservations until September 3.
The fires have scorched over 33,000 hectares in the region, and nearly a third of the town of Jasper has been destroyed. Residents, who were evacuated nearly a month ago, only began returning last Friday to find entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble, with charred trees and burnt-out cars scattered across the landscape.
“It feels like an apocalypse or a war zone,” one resident remarked, surveying the devastation.
Last year, Canada experienced its most destructive wildfire season on record, with over 6,000 fires ravaging 15 million hectares—an area larger than England. Typically, the country loses about 2.5 million hectares annually to wildfires. Experts warn that climate change is intensifying the frequency and destructiveness of these fires, posing an ongoing threat to both land and communities across the nation.
