Quebec Wildfires – Canadian Wildfires Update

Forest fires have been rampaging Quebec, the second most-populated province in Canada. Quebec officials have already evacuated about 2,000 people from their homes as firefighters battle 47 forest fires. The ongoing Quebec wildfires are reported to have been caused by lightning strikes.

About 1,200 firefighters are battling the flames, including 1,000 from Quebec and the remainder from the U.S. and Canadian provinces such as British Columbia, Lemay said via businessweek.

The U.S. National Weather Service said smoke from the Quebec fires had spread across much of Maine, New Hampshire and as far away as Boston and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Associated Press reported.

Quebec has received about one-third as much rain in May as normal, and average temperatures have been about 2 degrees Celsius higher than usual, said René Héroux, a spokesman for Environment Canada.

In Ontario, Canada’s most-populous province, about 1,200 firefighters are combating 71 fires, including 15 that are out of control, according to Don Mark, a spokesman for Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources.