become the epicenter of Forest fires which devastate a large part Canadathe province of Quebec anxiously awaits the arrival of international reinforcements to fight the fire, while smoke from the 150 fires still in progress reaches the United States.

This event is “another worrying sign of how climate crisis it affects our lives,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday.

After Alberta and Nova Scotia, Quebec faces fireThis is unheard of”. Currently there are 150 assets and of them a hundred is out of control. And no major rain is expected until Monday evening.

With the troops we have, we can cover around 40 fires at the same time, but there are 150 active ones,” Quebec Premier François Legault said. he added.

Quebec has mobilized hundreds of people to fight the fire and hopes to reach 1,200 with international aid, in particular with the arrival of French firefighters.

“We see that we are in a worse year than the one we have already known and our resources are at the limit,” said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, stressing the need to better prepare for “this new reality”.

Orange haze in New York

The new reality is hitting the Northeastern United States hard. ANDAt New York, the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan’s skyscrapers are draped in an orange and brown haze, as the masks, remnants of the pandemic, reappear on the streets.

Visibility is so complex that The US Civil Aviation Agency (FAA) has slowed air travel and even grounded some planes in the area.

The US government has called on its frail citizens to “take precautions” about air quality.

More than 100 million people were affected by air quality alerts due to the fires in Canada on Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) told AFP.

These alerts cover most of the northeastern United States, from Chicago in the north to Atlanta in the south.

evacuations

More than 20,000 Canadians were evacuated, more than half of them to Quebec, where the government is preparing to transfer another 4,000.

“The more time passes, the greater the challenge,” Legault said. Since the beginning of the year, 438 fires have been recorded in this French-speaking province, compared to an average of 200 at the same period over the past ten years.

The number of hectares burned at this time of year is also exceptional, according to the authorities.

Canada as a whole is experiencing an unprecedented year: 2,203 forest fires were recorded and nearly 3.8 million hectares burned; an amount well above the average of recent decades.

Canada, which due to its geographical location is warming faster than the rest of the planet, has faced extreme weather events in recent years, the intensity and frequency of which have increased due to the climate change.