There are hundreds of fires in Canada | The smoke is so dense that it affects the air quality

Hundreds of forest fires in the west and the center of Canada forced the evacuation of thousands of people of their communities and are the cause of the drop in air quality in cities como Edmonton, Calgary o Toronto.

The region most affected by the fires is British Columbia, on the Pacific coast of Canada, where on Tuesday they were still active about 300 forest fires, mainly in the southeast of the province.

the the biggest of these fires, that of Sparks Lake, west of the city of Kamloops, has already consumed more than 45,000 hectares of forest. So far the fires have burned over 270,000 hectares in British Columbia since the start of the fire season.

British Columbia officials have attributed the high number of fires to intense heat wave that at the end of June and at the beginning of July it was located in the province and that, killed at least 500 people.

The heat wave caused thermometers in the town of Lytton, west of Kamloops, to hit 49.6 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature ever recorded in the country.

High temperatures facilitate hundreds of forest fires in the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. And the smoke from those fires is causing problems in cities like Edmonton, Calgary and Toronto.

The Meteorological Service of Canada has warned that The air quality in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, poses a “high risk” to people with respiratory problems.

The smoke is so dense that it blocks the sun’s rays and cools the air. On Monday, the weather forecast predicted temperatures of 26 or 27 ° C in Edmonton but thermometers only reached 13 ° C due to the effect of smoke.

In Toronto, the country’s most populous city, air quality has deteriorated following the fires in northern Ontario, and as of Tuesday it is at moderate risk.

In the past few hours, 101 Mexican firefighters have arrived in Ontario to help fight more than 100 wildfires in the province.