More than 13,000 Evacuated as Wildfires Burn in Western Canada

More than 13,000 people have been evacuated from the western Canadian province of Alberta because of dozens of wildfires there, officials said Friday.

About 78 active wildfires were burning in the province as of Friday morning, and 19 were classified as “uncontrollable,” said Stephen Lacroix, managing director of the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, at a press conference on Friday morning in Edmonton. , the provincial capital. He called the situation “evolving and very fluid.”

By late Friday afternoon, the province’s fire agency website showed the number of active wildfires had grown to more than 100, more than a third of which were out of control.

An Alberta government spokeswoman declined to comment Friday night, referring reporters to the province’s website and social media pages.

In the United States, the National Weather Service warned Friday that warm, dry and windy conditions in the Southwest and South Plains over the weekend will create ideal weather for wildfires.

More than two million people in Colorado and New Mexico were under a “red flag” warning Friday night, indicating the risk of wildfires. More than a million more are under fire weather watches, meaning critical fire weather conditions are forecast.

Wildfires are increasing in size and intensity in the Western United States, and the fire season is getting longer. Recent studies have suggested that heat and drought associated with global warming are the main reasons for the increase in larger and stronger fires.

In Alberta, early spring tends to be the most dangerous time for wildfires. That’s partly because spring snow melts the leaves of many dead grasses and other potential fire fuels on the ground.

Friday’s wildfires were among the 379 recorded in the province this year. “This is more fire activity, this time of year, than we’ve seen in the past,” Christie Tucker, a spokeswoman for the Alberta fire agency, told reporters.

As of Friday morning, wildfires in Alberta had burned nearly 100 square miles of land in the province, an area nearly a third the size of New York City.