Don’t put out that fire!

Smoke from Canadian wildfires blankets America from Minneapolis to Chicago, east to New York City, and south to Washington, D.C.

“The TV news looks like a science fiction movie,” said Kid Robin Read.

More than 3,000 wildfires have exploded this year, and fire season doesn’t end until October. Firefighters from 10 countries are assisting the Canadians, including 600 men and women from the U.S.

But not all fires can be attacked. The country’s boreal forest is just too thick and widespread.

Many forests are in mountainous areas inaccessible by roads. Emergency crews prioritize which fires to fight and which to let burn.

“If you have limited resources and you have a lot of fires, what you do is protect human life and property first,” Robert Gray told CNN. The Canadian wildland fire ecologist said, “You protect people, infrastructure and watersheds.”

The amount of land burned in 2023 already exceeds that burned in 1989, the previous record, with four more months of fire season left. More than 522 active wildfires still blazed across Canada, 262 of them labelled “out of control.”

Some experts say that Canada should do more prescribed burns (small, controlled fires to rid forest floors of debris, scrub, undergrowth and grasses).

“We would be removing the fuel from the fire before there’s even a fire,” said Canadian Forest Service scientist Daniel Perrakis.

As fires raged across the country, a 4” rainfall on July 1 triggered a landslide in the Quebec province town of RivièreÉternité. About 100 campers had to be evacuated by helicopter, 200 people were forced from their homes, and two people were missing.

The thunderstorms disrupted July 1 Canada Day activities, which celebrate the 1867 British approval of uniting four colonies into a Canada federation with more self-governing. Canada won independence under its own constitution in 1982.

“I’m glad our Oklahoma community has a great fire department,” said Kid Libby Smart. “Sometimes, when we’re eating lunch at the same café as firefighters, their radios go off and they have to abandon their meals to protect us from fires.”