Battling the blaze
Typically Canada's fire season moves west to east as summer progresses. Fires have burned across the country simultaneously this year, straining containment efforts.
A Reuters survey of all 13 provinces and territories showed Canada employs around 5,500 wildland firefighters, not including the remote Yukon territory, which did not respond to requests for information. That's roughly 2,500 firefighters short of what is needed, said Mike Flannigan, a wildfire specialist and professor at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, in an interview with Reuters in June 2023.
This year, record fires have resulted in Canada deploying armed forces personnel and more than 3,400 international firefighters, paid for by the provinces, to beef up its stretched crews.