(Montreal) Quebec’s forests suffered very little from the fires this summer, according to the Society for the Protection of Forests Against Fire (SOPFEU).
Posted at 4:01 p.m.
Indeed, the organization counted Thursday 235.9 hectares burned during the summer season of 2022. This represents only a small fraction of the average of the last ten years at the same date, which amounts to 180,820.5 hectares.
“We can see a number of fires, but always very small fires,” noted SOPFEU prevention and communications officer Mélanie Morin. The number of fires – regardless of their size – was also lower than average, at 356 out of the 436 expected.
Mme Morin attributes this success to favorable weather, “given the precipitation that was on a regular basis throughout the season”. The rains that fell every two to three days “meant that there was never any significant drying out in the forests of Quebec”.
The month of August which has just ended did not break the trend, when only 6.7 hectares were burned there, instead of the 73 which form the average of the last ten years.
Of the 48 fires that were declared during this period, no less than 90% of them were caused by human activity, particularly recreational.
Quebecers to the rescue
While la belle province remained quiet, SOPFEU dispatched firefighters to lend a hand elsewhere in North America.
“We have firefighters who went to Alberta in July, we have tankers and airships who went to Newfoundland in early August and currently we have 20 wildland firefighters and a representative from agency who are heading to New York State to work on a fire in Minnewaska Park,” said Mr.me Morin.
According to her, mutual aid has become commonplace between organizations that fight forest fires and “when Quebec needs help, when we have a situation that exceeds our capacities, we can call on other provinces and even on American States”.
She assures that this support will in no way harm Quebec, as “we are only talking about 20 forest firefighters, but we have more than 300 in Quebec, in addition to our auxiliary fighters”. In addition, “the fire danger is currently low to moderate” throughout the territory and “any agency that lends personnel can repatriate its personnel at any time”.
Mme Morin warns, however, that the fire season will not be over until November, and that it is still too early to predict what the fall will look like.