This article was written by Morgan Lowrie and was published in the Toronto Star on June 27, 2023.

Canada surpassed the record for area burned by wildfires in a single year Monday as hundreds of fires continued to blaze in almost every province and territory.

The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre reported Monday afternoon that 76,129 square kilometres of forest and other land has burned since Jan. 1. That exceeds the previous record set in 1989 of 75,596 square kilometres, according to the National Forestry Database.

Last week federal Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair said he wasn’t “looking to break any records” but acknowledged it was likely coming. “Unfortunately the fire season this year started earlier and has been more widespread across the country than in recent memory,” he said.

It took less than six months to surpass the previous record for an entire year. And in 1989, more than 11,000 different fires combined to create the total, with an average size of about seven square kilometres. This year, there have been less than 3,000 fires so far, but they have averaged about 26 square kilometres in size.

Currently there are 490 fires burning nationally, with 255 of them considered to be out of control.

In Quebec, where nearly a quarter of the fires are burning, heavy smoke grounded water bombers in the province’s north Monday and caused widespread smog warnings farther south.

Nicolas Vigneault, a spokesperson for the province’s forest fire prevention agency, said the smoke had reduced visibility, making it impossible for some water bombers and helicopters to take off.

“We do as (many) operations as we can in the field with the firefighters, and in the air with the planes and helicopters,” he said.

“But our priority is the security of everybody, and the smoke is a challenge right now, and it’s been a challenge over the last two or three days.”

However, he said heavy rain and some wind is expected in the most affected parts of the province in the coming days, which should allow operations to resume “almost normally.”

While no towns are under immediate risk of burning, the fires have forced thousands of Quebecers from their homes. That includes the 2,000 residents of Lebel-sur-Quévillon, parts of Val-d’Or and Senneterre and some Indigenous communities.

Monday, the fire prevention agency said the fire burning near Lebel-sur-Quévillon remained out of control, and had grown to more than 4,400 square kilometres.

The Cree Nation of Mistissini said Sunday it was asking remaining community members to evacuate the area due to a fire threatening a nearby highway.

“The dryness index is 100, the highest that can be recorded, and the intensity of the fire is really high,” read a post on the community’s Facebook page.

Authorities noted that the forest fire agency was unable to get images of the fire due to low visibility, which made it hard to track its progress. A plan was in the works to protect the community by widening firebreaks, bringing in water tankers to combat spot fires and putting sprinklers at the entrance to the community.