Quebec sees progress in wildfire battle

Quebec has made progress in its battle to fight wildfires that have contributed to the smoke that blanketed large parts of North America this week.

“We’re really happy with the last 48 hours,” said Philippe Bergeron, with Quebec’s firefighting agency, on Friday.

Some evacuees in the province are hopeful they can soon return home.

Canada is currently battling more than 400 wildfires burning across the country.

Mr Bergeron said that firefighters have been successful in putting out a few fires, as well as containing larger ones in the province that have not grown as much in the last few days.

On Friday, Quebec said it had allocated C$1,500 ($1,120; £890) for every household that had been forced to evacuate in the province because of the fires.

But despite improvements in that province, on the west coast, officials in British Columbia (BC) are warning of a “wild” fire season ahead.

On Thursday, residents of the town of Tumbler Ridge, in north-eastern BC, were ordered to evacuated due to a rapidly growing fire nearby.

In Quebec, where about 120 fires are currently burning, residents from Oujé-Bougoumou told the BBC that they are getting regular updates about the fire threatening their Cree community.

Oujé-Bougoumou evacuees have been sheltering in local colleges in the city of Saguenay, around 392km (243 miles) southwest of their community.

Several fires are also threatening other nearby indigenous communities, like Chibougamau, which has also been evacuated.

Lance Cooper, the deputy chief of Oujé-Bougoumou, said his town of some 650 people had to evacuate quickly as thick clouds of smoke and flames encroached on Tuesday.

He said when evacuation efforts began, the town was focused on getting its most vulnerable people out, like the elderly and people with respiratory issues, due to concerns about air quality.

But within hours, they received a call from Quebec’s firefighting agency warning the situation had grown more dangerous.

“They had told us that everybody must go,” Mr Cooper told the BBC.

They cleared the community very quickly after that, he said.

Mr Cooper said that by the time he left, on the only highway out of town, what would have been a two-hour trip turned into a six-hour journey, with cars of evacuees from the region driving bumper-to-bumper .

He said his community’s evacuees have been welcomed in Saguenay, a city of 145,000 people, where they have spent the past few days at makeshift shelters set up in local colleges, sleeping on military beds.

But they are well taken care of, he said and the Cree community has been organising activities for the evacuated youth, like paintball games and movie nights.

“It’s like we’re on a camping trip,” Mr Cooper joked.

But he said the situation has been scary for the community, who has never been forced to evacuate due to wildfires before.

People are hopeful that their homes will be spared, he said.

Some communities across Canada have already lost homes as a result of this year’s devastating wildfire season.

In Alberta, around 85 structures have been destroyed on the Little Red Cree Nation, a spokesperson told Global News.

At least another 150 homes were destroyed in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia, local authorities had said.

Canada is relying on the help of firefighters from around the world, who have come to battle the unprecedented wildfire season.

Just over 100 arrived from France to Quebec on Thursday and they will be deployed on the ground by Saturday.

The unusual scale and number of fires this season have raised questions in Canada on whether the country needs to bolster its firefighting ability to grapple what the government has said is the result of climate change.

Mr Cooper said his community is already reckoning with a warming climate around them.

“I think we’re gonna probably see more and more of these fires down the road,” he said.

“Hopefully many of us will be spared from ever having to experience our homes burning.”