The Statue of Liberty is seen from Brooklyn, New York City through haze caused by smoke from Canadian wildfires.Adam Gray/Reuters
Canadian officials say it is not possible for wildfire fighters to lessen the impact of smoke drifting across vast swathes of the country and blanketing some American states, after several U.S. lawmakers complained that Canada is not doing enough to combat the smokey conditions.
Officials with the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre – a non-profit broker of staff and equipment owned and operated by federal, provincial and territorial wildland fire management agencies – held a briefing Thursday, which was attended by multiple American news outlets.
Mike McCulley, associate director of operations with CIFFC, said the fires burning across the country are generating smoke that rises into the lower stratosphere and travels hundreds of kilometres east and south.
“Many of these fires are burning in very difficult, inoperable terrain, and through all of this the people that are fighting these fires are humans with lives – all of the agencies that we collaborate with their top priority is the life and safety of the responders and the public,” he said.
“So even if we do predict them, I don’t want to leave the wrong impression that that means we’re going to be able to go and actively put them out or manage them in a way that reduces the smoke.”
On Wednesday, a group of Republican state lawmakers from Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and North Dakota announced they were filing a formal complaint about the smoke to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and the International Joint Commission, a binational organization that resolves Canada-U.S. disputes on shared water and air quality.
The U.S. politicians have called for an investigation of Canada’s wildfire management practices and for potential remedies under international law.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew has accused the group of playing political games, but he also thanked hundreds of American firefighters that have come to Canada’s aid.
The current wildfire season appears set to burn the second-most hectares ever recorded in Canada. At Thursday’s briefing, Mr. McCulley detailed how 4,186 fires have been detected across the country this season, with 728 still burning Thursday.
Brady Holiday, air operations controller at Quebec’s forest fire agency, the Société de protection des forêts contre le feu, said scientists are working to create a reliable way of predicting when conditions could create much larger wildfires, which he said have become more frequent during the continuing drought conditions in many areas.
Wildfire smoke is affecting air quality across the country. Here’s what you need to know
If firefighting agencies can’t respond soon enough, some fires combine with the drought conditions to generate enough heat to create their own weather patterns, which include pushing smoke up into the lower stratosphere.
“Then that’s where you’re seeing the interaction with global or continental weather patterns in terms of the jet streams, which is going to transport the smoke over thousands of kilometres,” Mr. Holiday said at the briefing.
“So that’s something that we’ve seen in the last few years, and it’s magnified when we get years like this year, as well as 2023.”
These giant firestorms are known as a pyrocumulonimbus event – or, as NASA has called it, “the fire-breathing dragon of clouds.” Scientists have only recently begun to understand and track the phenomenon, which in addition to dense clouds is capable of producing rain, hail, lightning and tornadoes – and spreading fire in the process.
No one at Thursday’s briefing could provide a tally for how many of these pyrocumulonimbus events have been recorded during this year’s wildfire season.
Where in Canada are there wildfire smoke warnings? Our map tracks air quality across the country
But the Republican politicians say Canada should do more to prevent these large wildfires from burning.
“If Canada can’t get these wildfires under control, they need to face real consequences,” Wisconsin State Representative Calvin Callahan said in a Wednesday news release. “We won’t sit back while our air becomes a health hazard.”
Last week, U.S. Congress Representative John James of Michigan sent a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney saying his constituents are choking on toxic wildfire smoke.
Mr. James, citing a letter other Republican members of Congress sent to Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman in July, said that “since then, rather than progress, we have seen escalation.”
Mr. Kinew’s declaration of a second state of emergency in Manitoba, Mr. James said, “confirmed what many Americans have feared: that Canada is not doing nearly enough to stop these fires before they start.”
Natural Resources Canada said in July that wildfires are a global problem caused by the effects of climate change, including prolonged drought.
The U.S. ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, said Tuesday that Canada’s recent wildfires offer a “stark reminder” of the countries’ shared challenges.
In a statement shared by the U.S. embassy, Mr. Hoekstra said the two countries have “a long history” of supporting one another in times of crisis.
“Canadians stood with us during the tragic California wildfires earlier this year, and we are committed to standing with Canada now,” he said.
What do you want to know about air quality?
Hundreds of wildfires have sent smoke across Canada and beyond this country's borders this summer, and now smoke blanketing Toronto and the GTA is posing a "very high risk" to health. Are you constantly checking your weather apps, or just trying to figure out what the different alerts mean? Our health and science teams are trying to answer your pressing questions about air quality and how you can protect yourself, and we want to know what you want to know. Submit your questions using the form below or e-mail us at audience@globeandmail.com with "Wildfire smoke" in the subject line. with