Canadian officials say the wildfires last week that sent a massive cloud of smoke into the U.S. and brought record-breaking pollutions to major East Coast cites could continue all summer.
“This is a first in the history of Quebec to fight so many fires, to evacuate so many people,” Francois Bonnardel, the province’s minister of public security said this past weekend. “We are going to have a fight that we think will last all summer.”
Already this year, nearly 17,800 square miles have reportedly burned in Canada, forcing thousands across the country to evacuate and relocate. Right now, reports show 447 active fires in Canada, with 220 of them considered to be “out of control.”