Wildfires burning in the western US, including California, and Canada have caused evacuations and air quality alerts.
Wildfires are raging across parts of the US and Canada this summer, with some blazes ignited by extreme weather events.
Millions of people in the western US and Canada were placed under air quality alerts on Sunday as fires forced thousands to evacuate their homes.
A wildfire tracking map shows blazes burning up and down the California coast and parts of the the Pacific Northwest, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico.
Fires are also shown scattered from coast to coast in Canada in the map by the Fire Information for Resource Management System, a collaboration between NASA and the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service for data and monitoring.
NASA on Friday released an animation showing smoke covering the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories. The smoke could be seen traveling over the US states of Montana, Colorado, Wisconsin and Kansas and other areas of the Midwest, from July 17 to 24.
Over the weekend, the Park Fire in northern California became the largest active blaze in the US and the seventh in the Golden State’s history, stated the the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection on X (formerly Twitter).
The Park Fire has destroyed more than 350,000 acres and put at least four counties under evacuation orders. A dip in temperatures and increase in humidity helped firefighters in their efforts in getting the inferno 10% contained on Sunday.
Ronnie Dean Scout, 42, was arrested last week on suspicion of sparking the fire after its cause was determined to be arson. The Park Fire has been compared to California’s 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people and destroyed 11,000 homes in the town of Paradise.
Previously, the largest active fire in the US was in Oregon, the Durkee Fire. As of Sunday, it had grown to more than 288,000 acres but was 49% contained, KTVZ reported.
There were more than 100 large-scale active wildfires in the US as of Monday and 25 fires prompted evacuation orders, stated the National Interagency Fire Center.
As of Friday, 948 active blazes plagued Canada, with 387 of them deemed out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. About 25,000 people were forced to flee the touristic resort town of Jasper in Alberta. Canada has summoned its military to assist, PBS reported.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
