Legault seeking international aid as more than 160 wildfires burn in Quebec
Quebec Premier François Legault says his government is looking internationally for support as it struggles to battle more than 160 forest fires.
With more than 480 wilderness firefighters on the ground, Quebec can fight around 30 fires, Legault told reporters Monday, adding that normally firefighters would come from other provinces to help.
"When I talk to the premiers of other provinces, they have their hands full," Legault told a briefing in Quebec City.
He said no lives have been lost in the fires, but firefighters were forced to pull back from the hamlet of Clova, Que., around 325 kilometres northwest of Montreal.
"Unfortunately, we lost control," Legault said. "We are going to be obliged to let Clova burn." Authorities said the community's 36 residents have been evacuated.
Later in the day, Quebec's wildfire prevention agency, SOPFEU, said the intensity of the fire in the area had exceeded the capacity of water bombers, but it was continuing to work to protect the community. It said on Twitter that no residences had yet been destroyed, though some cottages may have burned.
(NASA Earth Observatory image of the Quebec wildfires by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview)
Legault said an additional 200 firefighters are coming from France and the United States, and Quebec is also in talks with Costa Rica, Portugal and Chile as it searches for additional resources.
Fires have forced about 10,000 people from their homes in the province, with most of those in the northwestern Abitibi region and the eastern Côte-Nord region.
Few of those residents will be able to return home in the short term, Legault said. "The winds are changing rapidly and we have to follow the weather."
With rain forecast for the Côte-Nord, Legault said he is now most worried about the Abitibi, where no rain is expected for five days.
On Monday afternoon, the municipality of St-Lambert, along the Ontario border in Abitibi, declared a state of emergency and ordered its 200 residents to leave their homes. The neighbouring community of Normétal was evacuated the day before.
Normétal is one of two communities in the area that the government is watching closely, Legault said. The other is Lebel-sur-Quévillon. Firefighters there did an "extraordinary" job to protect a pulp mill, spraying it with water for hours, Legault said.
"It was very close, but they managed to save it, but there's now another fire, coming from another direction that's approaching Lebel-sur-Quévillon," he said.
More than 160 fires have been reported in the province, including at least 114 that are out of control. More than 173,000 hectares have burned this year in Quebec's "intensive protection fire zone" — the area where normally all fires are actively fought — compared with a 10-year average of 247 hectares as of the same date, SOPFEU said.
Kateri Champagne Jourdain, the minister responsible for the Côte-Nord region, told a news conference that the fires in her region northeast of Quebec City were unprecedented. She spoke in Sept-Îles, Que., a city threatened by two fires — including one no more than seven kilometres away — with a third burning not far away.
The risk hit home during a helicopter flight over the fires Sunday, Champagne Jourdain said.
“We saw that in an instant, the situation could change. So even though it may seem like it’s far at times, the fires are at our doors,” she said. “The force and the size of the fire was stunning, so we absolutely have to let the teams gain ground.”
She said 138 Canadian Armed Forces members arrived in the area Sunday, with another 100 expected Monday, adding that the troops have received training so they can support the province's wilderness firefighters.
With the help of the soldiers and a weather forecast that includes significant rain, Sept-Îles Mayor Steeve Beaupré said he’s hopeful the fire nearest his city can be brought under control in the coming days. The other fire is moving north, away from the city, but it grew Sunday afternoon.
Beaupré said an evacuation order that has forced about 4,500 people from their homes remained in effect, and he encouraged people to avoid going outside because of the heavy smoke.
“We all know you’re anxious to get back to your homes, but I’d like to ask for a bit more patience, so that when it is possible to return, you can sleep soundly knowing that you and all the members of your family are safe,” he said.
Smoke from the fires has also led to Environment Canada smog warnings across large swaths of Quebec, including in Montreal, where the city's public health department encouraged residents to stay inside and close their windows due to the smoke.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 5, 2023.
— With files from Frédéric Lacroix-Couture.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
A newspaper says video of Prince William and Kate should halt royal rumour mill. That's a tall order
Prince William and his wife Catherine have been filmed at a farm shop near their Windsor home, The Sun newspaper reported -- the first footage of Kate since she had abdominal surgery for an unspecified condition two months ago.
'You ask for your money, they disappear': Ontario man loses $17K to AI crypto scam
A Toronto man is spreading the word of a cryptocurrency scam that lures victims using AI-generated news sites after he lost $17,000 in investments.
Hertz CEO out following electric car 'horror show'
The company, which announced in January it was selling 20,000 of the electric vehicles in its fleet, or about a third of the EVs it owned, is now replacing the CEO who helped build up that fleet, giving it the company’s fifth boss in just four years.
High thoughts: The habits of Canadian cannabis users are revealed in a new StatCan report
Statistics Canada has conducted a series of surveys to measure the impacts of legalized cannabis since the Cannabis Act took effect in 2018. The latest one, the 2023 National Cannabis Survey, sheds light on users' preferences and habits last year.
Demand soars for solar eclipse glasses in Canada. Are they worth buying?
The demand for total solar eclipse glasses used to safely view the rare celestial event has been ramping up as sellers, along with astronomy and eye-care experts in Canada, warn that viewing the eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous.
Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and their religion
Former U.S. president Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and hate 'their religion,' igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders.
Toronto family doctor who called patient's body 'perfect' suspended for 3 months: tribunal
A family doctor in Toronto has been suspended for three months after a disciplinary tribunal found that he failed to follow proper protocols while examining a patient's breasts and made inappropriate comments about her body.
Freddie Mercury's home is on the market for first time since 1980 minus his 'exquisite clutter'
Freddie Mercury's sanctuary in London, where he lived the last decade of his life, is on sale for the first time in nearly half a century -- minus his "exquisite clutter."
'The lost season': Winter comes to a close as Canada's warmest on record
The warmest winter on record could have far-reaching effects on everything from wildfire season to erosion, climatologists say, while offering a preview of what the season could resemble in the not-so-distant future unless steps are taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions.