More than 25,000 residents in three provinces have been evacuated as dozens of wildfires remained active Sunday and diminished air quality in parts of Canada and the U.S., according to officials.
Most of the evacuated residents were from Manitoba, which declared a state of emergency last week. About 17,000 people there were evacuated by Saturday along with 1,300 in Alberta. About 8,000 people in Saskatchewan had been relocated as leaders there warned the number could climb.
Smoke was worsening air quality and reducing visibility in Canada and into some U.S. states along the border.
“Air quality and visibility due to wildfire smoke can fluctuate over short distances and can vary considerably from hour to hour,” Saskatchewan’s Public Safety Agency warned Sunday. “As smoke levels increase, health risks increase.”
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said ongoing hot, dry weather is allowing some fires to grow and threaten communities, and resources to fight the fires and support the evacuees are stretched thin.
“The next four to seven days are absolutely critical until we can find our way to changing weather patterns, and ultimately a soaking rain throughout the north,” Moe said at a Saturday news conference.
In Manitoba, more than 5,000 of those evacuated are from Flin Flon, located nearly 645 kilometers (400 miles) northwest of the provincial capital of Winnipeg. In northern Manitoba, fire knocked out power to the community of Cranberry Portage, forcing a mandatory evacuation order Saturday for about 600 residents.
The fire menacing Flin Flon began a week ago near Creighton, Saskatchewan, and quickly jumped the boundary into Manitoba. Crews have struggled to contain it. Water bombers have been intermittently grounded due to heavy smoke and a drone incursion.
The US Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service deployed an air tanker to Alberta and said it would send 150 firefighters and equipment to Canada.
In some parts of the US, air quality reached “unhealthy” levels Sunday in North Dakota and small swaths of Montana, Minnesota and South Dakota, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow page.
“We should expect at least a couple more rounds of Canadian smoke to come through the US over the next week,” said Bryan Jackson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the US.
Evacuation centers have opened across Manitoba for those fleeing the fires, one as far south as Winkler, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the US border. Winnipeg opened up public buildings for evacuees as it deals with hotels already crammed with other fire refugees, vacationers, business people and convention-goers.