Forest fires in Quebec were deemed “out of control,” and smoke from fires in Canada reached New York

New York’s iconic skyline was engulfed in smoke Tuesday as wildfires ravaged Quebec and eastern Canada. The Meteorological Department has issued an air quality warning for the city.

About 160 fires were still active Tuesday in Quebec, which has become the epicenter of a disastrous spring fire front in Canada that has worsened air quality across borders. Most of these fires (about 110) are considered out of control in the province of eight million people.

In the Sept-Îles region near the St. Lawrence River in northern Quebec, 10 to 20 millimeters of rain fell during the day to help firefighters, while 4,400 Quebecers were able to return home.

“We are very happy to see the rain,” said provincial premier François Legault.

“We are living in an unprecedented situation”

And in the north, “a big fire will take weeks to put out completely, so we have to be cautious,” he said. In the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region, about 650 kilometers north of Montreal, the fire is considered to be of “concern” even though it has subsided.

“We are experiencing a situation that is unprecedented, if not unusual, everywhere in Quebec,” warned Public Safety Minister François Bonnardel, stressing that most of these fires were “human-caused.”

“Usually, the West burns, Quebec doesn’t burn (…) but it burns everywhere,” he pointed out.

Dozens of fires are still active in the west of the country that hit in early May, especially in Alberta (62 fires) and British Columbia (76), but in the center, in the province of Saskatchewan (24).

Poor air quality

The French-speaking province has reported 424 fires since the start of the year, compared to an average of 200 on the same date over the past ten years. A hundred French firefighters are due to arrive as reinforcements by Friday.

Blown by the wind, smoke from the fires affecting the eastern part of the country has reached Montreal and especially the capital Ottawa, where poor air quality poses a “very high risk” to people, Environment Canada said.

Ottawa officials urged residents to avoid outdoor physical activity, and the situation is expected to continue throughout the week.

“The smell of smoke is so strong…some people wear masks on the streets and you have to close the doors and windows to prevent your house from smelling like ash,” Abe said. Borgie lives in the Canadian capital.

Covering several major Canadian cities, the orange veil stretched for hundreds of kilometers and crossed the US border, particularly as far as New York. Manhattan’s famous “skyline” was hard to overlook, along with equally poor air quality.