OTTAWA (Reuters) – Smoke from wildfires in eastern Canada has polluted the air over Toronto and Ottawa and triggered health alerts from Environment Canada on Tuesday.
Canada has experienced an unprecedented early start to wildfire season and is on track for its worst-ever year of destruction as warm and dry conditions are forecast to persist through to the end of the summer.
There are blazes in nearly all Canadian provinces and territories, with Quebec, in eastern Canada, the worst impacted due to multiple fires caused by lightning.
The national capital of Ottawa, which borders Quebec, was covered in haze on Tuesday morning, with air quality in category 10+, the worst level on Environment Canada’s Air Quality Health Index, indicating “very high risk”.
“Smoke plumes from local forest fires as well as forest fires in Quebec have resulted in deteriorated air quality,” Environment Canada said in an air quality alert for Ottawa.
The air over Toronto was also polluted due to Quebec fires and conditions could persist through most of this week, the government run weather agency said.
Wildfire smoke can be harmful to health even at low concentrations.
“People with lung disease (such as asthma) or heart disease, older adults, children, pregnant people, and people who work outdoors are at higher risk of experiencing health effects caused by wildfire smoke,” Environment Canada said in separate statements issued for Ottawa and Toronto.
Wildfires are common in Canada’s western provinces, but this year flames have been mushrooming rapidly in eastern Canada, forcing home evacuations and the federal government to send in the military.
About 3.3 million hectares have already burned – some 13 times the 10-year average – and more than 120,000 people have been at least temporarily forced out of their homes.
“I want to highlight that people need to continue to listen to local authorities on how to stay safe, including in places like Ottawa that are affected by smoke from wildfires,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa, editing by Ed Osmond)
