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The health impacts of escalating megafires are everyone’s problem

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When the Parker Lake wildfire erupted near Fort Nelson in British Columbia province on May 10, it marked the start of what many fear could be yet another devastating Canadian fire season. With an ongoing multiyear drought, forests across western Canada are tinder dry and primed to burn. By February, hundreds of “zombie fires” that had lain dormant underground over winter started to smolder. In April, British Columbia’s spring snowpack was just 63% of normal, the lowest ever recorded. Then, in mid-May, there was a week of hot and windy days — and a spark set the forest outside Fort Nelson alight. Strong winds drove the flames toward the community, advancing 8 kilometers (5 miles) in just four hours. By May 12, officials had told nearly 4000 people to evacuate. As of June 13, about 323,000 hectares (798,000 acres) of forest had already burned this year in British Columbia. That’s three-quarters of the average annual amount over the past 20 years. To the east, in Alberta, similar scenes have unfolded. This year’s fires have erupted even while memories of last year’s record fire season are still fresh. Last year, 15 million hectares (37 million acres) burned in Canada, an area one-sixth the size of British Columbia and more than twice the previous record. Four percent of Canada’s forested land went up in flames that year alone. Those fires drove nearly a quarter of a million people from their homes. But the evacuees weren’t the only ones directly affected by Canada’s record-setting…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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