Around 9,000 people evacuated in northeastern Canada due to forest fire

Residents of Labrador City and Wabush in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador have been asked to leave their homes since Friday evening due to “the extreme behavior of the fire.”

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Pictures posted online showed long lines of cars outside gas stations while huge clouds of smoke obscured the sky. “When I saw the smoke, it was a shock,” Stacy Hunt from Labrador City told public broadcaster CBC. “There’s only one place we can go. We don’t have many options,” he added.

In the remote region north of the province of Quebec, people actually have no choice: they have to travel over 500 kilometers east on the only road to reach safety.

“Fire advances 50 meters per minute”

“We are observing extreme fire behavior. It is advancing about 50 meters per minute,” said fire department spokesman Jeff Motty. Due to the intensity of the fire, the use of firefighting aircraft is impossible.

Belinda Adams, mayor of Labrador City, urged the last remaining residents to leave the city in a video posted online early Saturday morning because “the fire is still active.” The last buses were scheduled to leave the city at noon.

1.5 million hectares of forest burned

Federal authorities said on Friday that the extent of the forest fires had been limited since the beginning of the summer due to favorable weather conditions. But the country is now heading towards the main forest fire season. According to official figures, 1.5 million hectares of forest have burned so far this year, which is more “about average.”

Last year, Canada experienced its worst wildfire season to date. More than 15 million hectares of land burned and eight firefighters died. A total of 230,000 people were evacuated.