LANGDON, Alb.-Data is still being processed, but even before June, the summer 2023 wildfire season in Canada started breaking records-and especially affecting Indigenous communities.
Wildfires are nothing new to Canadians. The statistics of a normal year are especially heart-breaking among Indigenous people. The Assembly of First Nations recently cited a report revealing that Ontario First Nations children aged 0 to 9 years are 86 times greater than non-First Nations children to die in a fire. And nationally, Statistics Canada found that First Nations people are approximately 10 times more likely to die in a fire than non-First Nations people.
Knowing that wildfires are part of life, Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) annually budgets $16.5 million for wildfire management services and wildfire prevention and mitigation activities across the country. And Budget 2022 includes $39.2 million in funding over 5 years to support wildland-urban firefighting equipment and training in First Nations communities.
So fires are not uncommon on First Nations, Inuit, and Métis lands. In fact, Indigenous communities may evacuate repeatedly. CBC News noted that 14 First Nations reserves were evacuated five or more times from 1980 to 2021.
But one thing different about wildfires this summer is that multiple fires-up to hundreds simultaneously-filled widespread areas, requiring more people to evacuate at once. "Before, if we had fire, it was only in one place," William Wapachee, an elder who was evacuated from Nemaska to Quebec City, told the New York Times. "Now it seems to be a fire here, a fire there, fire everywhere."
Record-breaking Statistics
According to September 9 data from Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre the nation experienced 6175 fires this season, with a few new fires every day and 922 active fires burning on September 8 alone-556 out of control.
Cumulative burned areas have totaled 168,000 square kilometers as of September 8. By early July the burned area exceeded the record of 76,000 square kilometers burned in 1989. The hardest hit areas have been Quebec with 5,311,154 hectacres burned, followed by the Northwest Territories with 3,848,064.
The wildfires of a normal season occur mainly on remote lands. But this year, unseasonably warm temperatures and more lightning caused fires in regions that normally don't see such blazes.
According to Sandy Erni, a fire and disaster risk expert with Canada's Forest Service, fires this year have burned not just forested areas but also through communities. "Every Canadian has been affected in a way or another," she said in late August, noting that four firefighters died and by August, nearly 200,000 people had evacuated, breaking a 40-year record.
She noted that Indigenous communities were hit the hardest. In July, 75 percent of those under evacuation orders were Indigenous. Many Indigenous communities live on the frontline of wooded areas and depend on forests for food. These areas tend to be remote or in the northern latitudes-areas that are not a firefighting priority since they are sparsely populated and have few buildings.
Escaping the Flames
The evacuations ordered by community leaders in tandem with government officials lasted for weeks, with families sometimes separated across hundreds of miles and sleeping in places such as hotels, gyms, and even tents. Many had to flee repeatedly.
More than 17,000 pieces of equipment were moved between provinces and territories, to not only help fight fires, but also to aid with airlifts of evacuees.
According to the New York Times, in July, eight of nine Cree communities faced evacuation. Commercial airliners and CRAF Chinook helicopters airlifted some, while buses transported others up to hundreds of miles.
"I've never seen that level of evacuation in Cree Nation, simultaneous communities all at once," Mandy Gull-Masty, grand chief of the Cree Nation in Quebec, who had to evacuate from Waswanipi in June, told a New York Times reporter.
The Zombie Fire Phenomenon
Patrick Louchouarn, Professor of Earth Sciences at State University, says the season was severe in part because many of the wildfires are ground fires. He explains that ground fires, don't flame up, but burn slowly, go deep into the ground, and spread laterally. They are less visible, less accessible and require firefighters to dig deeply and douse them with lots of water. They demand more resources for longer periods of time.
Louchouarn noted that firefighters in Alberta, where carbon-rich peatlands are common, have dealt with fires smoldering dozens of feet underground. Because peat fires can cause unstable ground, using heavy equipment to excavate the fire is too risky.
Another problem with ground fires is that they can smolder through the winter and reignite when spring temperatures rise. These underground fires are known as "zombie fires" for their penchant to seem to die and then come to life again later.
"These smoldering fires also produce more smoke because of their lower temperature of combustion," he says. "Ultra-fine particles in smoke are particularly harmful to the respiratory and cardiovascular systems and can be carried far and wide by winds."
Something in the Air
The fires this year have caused intense air-quality issues. An August report from Reuters showed that some cities had record-high levels on the air quality index (AQI), which measures major pollutants, including particulate matter (PM) produced by fires. Any rating over 300 is considered hazardous. Several BC cities showed readings from 350 to 470.
And the smoke particles don't stop at the border. Millions across the U.S.-even in mid-south regions-have breathed in smokey air this season because of stronger Canadian winds. July reports showed significant cross-border impacts on four separate occasions, each lasting up to two weeks. Reports are not in yet for impacts in August and September.
During those four instances of cross-border transmission, air quality readings in the US showed particulate matter exceeding 50 micrograms per cubic meter, leading to some flight cancellations, school closures, and risks to respiratory systems. Some scientists report that the smoke caused the worst pollution weather in New York City since 1960. They also say one transmission process caused Chicago's air quality index to exceed the standard by 5.6 times.
According to the Global Times, in late July, Chinese scientists assessed that carbon dioxide emissions from Canadian wildfires had reached 1 billion tons. Due to the weather dynamics, the PM2.5 released from the Canadian wildfire reached the Scandinavian Peninsula by the end of May, Iceland and Greenland by June 8, and mainland Europe June 26–30.
Long-Reaching Effects
Wildfires bring other problems besides destroyed land, displacement and poor air quality. Thankfully, no civilians were directly killed by wildfires. However, the fires have especially threatened Indigenous communities beyond their loss of homes. The fires inflicted immeasurable damage to the forest ecology and cultural heritage, disrupting a way of life that relies on hunting and fishing for food.
In July, 85 percent of the East Prairie Métis Settlement burned in the first wildfire there in over 60 years, destroying 14 houses and 60 other structures.
"In [the] blink of [an] eye, we lost so much . . . it was devastating," Rayond Supernault, chairman of the East Prairie Métis Settlement told PBS. He noted that since the fire, he hadn't seen any elk or moose, both important food sources. "We don't just jump in the car and go to the IGA" for groceries, he said. "We go to the brush."
The toll on the Canadian economy is only beginning. By the end of July, the country's Department of Indigenous Services had already paid $55 million to communities affected by wildfires.
The tourism industry was hit hard-especially since the fires impacted coastal and other areas that normally don't deal with wildfires. Even areas not in the flames' path suffered. For instance, one area lost tourist business because fires blocked highway access two hours away.
Evacuation orders hurt individuals financially. Living on the lam from fires, people often spent hundreds for transportation, shelter, food, and other necessities. The unexpected expenses place a higher burden on households already dealing with high debt and high inflation-plus income lost from time off work or jobs lost due to the fires.
The fires only slightly disrupted the oil industry; more concerning is the reduced timber harvests. Canada already faces an ongoing affordable-housing shortage as it works to bring in millions of new immigrants, without a lumber shortage.
And the insurance industry is on alert. Before 2009, insured losses in Canada averaged around 450 million Canadian dollars a year; now they routinely exceed $2 billion. Large reinsurers had already pulled back from the Canadian market, increasing insurance prices for homeowners and businesses.
And don't forget costs to the national health system as people face more illnesses as a result of excessive heat and respiratory ailments.
One consulting firm has forecasted that these issues could knock between 0.3 and 0.6 percentage points off Canada's economic growth in the third quarter.
Help From Unexpected Places
In early July, Canadian officials noted that already the unprecedented fires had also brought unprecedented levels of support. Canadian Armed Forces jumped in to help 3,800 provincial firefighters. Nearly 3,300 firefighters from 11 countries also helped attack the blazes.
In the evacuee realm, individuals and organizations pitched in. Reporters liased with Canadian officials to share information and resources with the public, talk to first responders, and guide their followers through difficulties-sometimes during their own evacauations.
People used social media to share information about fire locations, escape routes, which highways were open or closed, and available help.
Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, blocked Canadian news services from their platforms in July (see page 8), so "Our audience did an incredible job of undermining that ban on our behalf," Ollie Williams, editor of Cabin Radio told AP News. He said individuals used their own social media to get "our coverage out to each other, regardless of Meta trying to keep that from happening."
Many churches, cities, organizations, and individuals opened their parking lots, doors, pantries, and hearts to evacuees.
During Northwest Territories evacuations, High Level, Alta., offered free camping and evacuee parking, as well as providing food, cots, and showers in their sports complex. One man near Manning, Alta., let people camp on his land or stay in his RV.
Melinda Laboucan with Edmonton's Goba Care, told Canadian Press that the heathcare organization was overwhelmed with people giving donations-including food, clothing, diapers and baby formula.
"I just can't believe the amount of Albertans just wanting to help and support. It's just-wow, I love this," Laboucan said.
Calgary set up evacuation centers for 5,000 people, and the city's Parachutes for Pets charity gathered pet supply donations and found boarding to help evacuees who couldn't keep pets in evacuation centers.
In B.C., One Hope Canada camps offered a staging area for firefighting teams, even while they were being evacuated.
Presbyterians for Earth Care (PEC) made churches aware of the crisis, and encouraged members near and far to pray, follow news so they could better know how to help, and to meet needs of those working in dangerous air environments outdoors.
A Future Beyond Flames
As evacuees returned to Yellowknife, Mayor Rebecca Alty warned them that the city "will look a little bit different." She explained that while people were gone, fire breaks were installed to better protect the city from wildfires the rest of this season and in the future.
However, Yellowknife is not the only area that will look different in the future.
Since wildfires are part of a life cycle, Martin Girardin, a forest ecologist with the Canadian Forest Service told NPR that it's important to remember that wildfires are integral to Canada's ecology. The region's forests developed with fire and sometimes need it to stay healthy. Scientists can look into the past using climate archives, like tree rings and fragments of charcoal preserved in lakes, to see that vast burns have happened at least every few hundred years. He said periods in the past had even more frequent and widespread fires than now.
Robert Gray, a wildland fire ecologist, told Vancouver News, "Nature is amazing. It's resilience . . . [So many plants] need fire on a regular basis, so they will re-occupy those areas." He explained that shrub species already have seeds buried in the soil waiting for heat to germinate them. So by next year, people will see "an explosion of shrubs, grasses, and herbs" on the damaged land.
However, new trees will need to be planted. Burned trees will not regenerate but will attract insects that will make them eventually break apart, causing fire risks and requiring prescribed burns.
And the wild animals that fled? As grasses and berry-filled shrubs grow, small animals, birds, elk, deer, and bears, will find these new, open areas to be feasting grounds.
Ken Lertzman, professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University's School of Resource and Environmental Management told Vancouver News that young forests usually need 40 to 60 years to be established and at least 100 years to mature, depending on factors such as soil conditions and temperatures. Warm, dry conditions slow the process.
Gray pointed out that it's OK, and even desirable, if forests are a little sparcer than before. "You definitely want fewer trees because the more trees, you have more drought, and then it weakens the trees, and insects kill the trees. And then fire occurs."
