A number of forest fires continue to ravage southwestern Canada and the western United States. Several cities have been evacuated.
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In British Columbia, the authorities imposed a state of emergency on Monday. More than 3,000 firefighters are trying to put out the fires.
– I have lived here in Ashcroft for almost 25 years and have never seen anything close to this, says mayor Barbara Roden.
5,700 people have been evacuated in the province, and 32,000 have been told to prepare for evacuation.
High temperatures in combination with wind make the extinguishing work difficult.
The Canadian Army is now preparing to deploy another 350 troops in the province of British Columbia and 120 in the province of Manitoba. Military personnel also assist the fire department in the province of Ontario.
– The most frightening thing is that we are only halfway through July, says Rhoden
–80 large fires
South of the border, nearly 80 major forest fires are currently raging in the states of California, Oregon, Montana and Nevada. The largest of them is a fire in Oregon that in two weeks has scorched as much terrain as the size of Los Angeles.
– The fire has become so large and creates so much energy that it has begun to form its own weather system, says Marcus Kauffman in the Oregon Forest Administration.
The fire nourishes itself and has even created a lightning strike, says Kauffman.
Smoke from fires west of the continent reached the states of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania on Tuesday, where health warnings were issued to the population about poor air quality.
–Digging down high voltage cables
In California, several cities have been evacuated as a result of a major fire triggered by a tree that fell over a high-voltage line owned by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E).
Last year, the company pleaded guilty to negligent homicide when a fire started near the town of Paradise two years earlier, as a result of a fault in the high-voltage grid. 86 people lost their lives.
On Wednesday, the company announced that it will immediately start work on digging down 16,000 kilometers of high-voltage lines in areas where there is a risk of forest fires. The work is expected to be completed within ten years and will cost tens of billions of dollars.
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