On June 1, 2023, a severe lightning storm hit areas of Quebec, Canada causing a huge spread of wildfire as big as the size of Kentucky. Since then, many Indigenous people living in the area were told to evacuate due to the concerns of fire and smoke.
The cause of this devastating disaster was the dry conditions in Northern Quebec and its low firefighting priority, since the area has a very scattered population and little infrastructure.
According to government officials, ever since May, hundreds of wildfires have started to burn uncontrollably across Canada, destroying more than 47,000 sq miles of forest, the area equal to the size of New York. 25,000 Indigenous people who live nearby have also been moved from British Columbia to Nova Scotia. A report from the Cree communities in Quebec on July 8 has said that there are 21,000 people evacuated partially and as a whole. Many Indigenous people were evacuated from their homes and separated from their families hundreds of miles away, sleeping in gyms and hotels. Some people were even airlifted. To make it worse, many have already fled multiple times with a month left in Canada’s fire season.
45 year old Joshua Iserhoff, a member of Cree Nation of Nemaska, Canada, who was forced to turn back with his wife and two children said, “I honestly wasn’t sure we’d make it out. The wind was so ferocious it almost picked up the vehicle,”
79 year old William Wapachee, who has lung cancer, started to cough and have a hard time breathing from the fire, has said that, “I Inhaled too much of that smoke.”
“Before, if we had fire, it was only in one place,” Mr Wapachee said. “Now it seems to be a fire here, a fire there, fire everywhere.”
Those wildfires soon turned into huge yellow puffy clouds that surrounded the sky. The smoke and pollution soon reached areas such as the US and continued to make people worry about the pollution. What makes it worse is that the government’s policy was said to let the wildfire burn with the exception of when it reaches towns or key infrastructure.
The fire chief in Nemaska, Mr. Black said, “I don’t think these fires will stop until everything is burned, these fires are here to stay until fall gets here — or the snow.”
As more and more people have been impacted and concerned, Mandy Gull-Masty stood out and criticized the government’s policy of refraining from fighting wildfires. “Our territory doesn’t have a super high population, and we don’t have a lot of infrastructure that needs to be protected, but for us, our territory is our infrastructure,” said Ms. Gull-Masty.
However, the Quebec’s Wildfire Agency defended its own policy saying that there are limited resources in this wide landscape.
In this chaotic situation, it is important and crucial to keep calm, be patient and make good decisions. Even though the wildfires have caused many concerns, disadvantages, and harm for nature, people working together has helped make it better for the citizens that’ve been affected. The Department of Indigenous Service has paid around 55 million dollars to support the communities affected by the fire.
The cause of this devastating disaster was the dry conditions in Northern Quebec and its low firefighting priority, since the area has a very scattered population and little infrastructure.
According to government officials, ever since May, hundreds of wildfires have started to burn uncontrollably across Canada, destroying more than 47,000 sq miles of forest, the area equal to the size of New York. 25,000 Indigenous people who live nearby have also been moved from British Columbia to Nova Scotia. A report from the Cree communities in Quebec on July 8 has said that there are 21,000 people evacuated partially and as a whole. Many Indigenous people were evacuated from their homes and separated from their families hundreds of miles away, sleeping in gyms and hotels. Some people were even airlifted. To make it worse, many have already fled multiple times with a month left in Canada’s fire season.
45 year old Joshua Iserhoff, a member of Cree Nation of Nemaska, Canada, who was forced to turn back with his wife and two children said, “I honestly wasn’t sure we’d make it out. The wind was so ferocious it almost picked up the vehicle,”
79 year old William Wapachee, who has lung cancer, started to cough and have a hard time breathing from the fire, has said that, “I Inhaled too much of that smoke.”
“Before, if we had fire, it was only in one place,” Mr Wapachee said. “Now it seems to be a fire here, a fire there, fire everywhere.”
Those wildfires soon turned into huge yellow puffy clouds that surrounded the sky. The smoke and pollution soon reached areas such as the US and continued to make people worry about the pollution. What makes it worse is that the government’s policy was said to let the wildfire burn with the exception of when it reaches towns or key infrastructure.
The fire chief in Nemaska, Mr. Black said, “I don’t think these fires will stop until everything is burned, these fires are here to stay until fall gets here — or the snow.”
As more and more people have been impacted and concerned, Mandy Gull-Masty stood out and criticized the government’s policy of refraining from fighting wildfires. “Our territory doesn’t have a super high population, and we don’t have a lot of infrastructure that needs to be protected, but for us, our territory is our infrastructure,” said Ms. Gull-Masty.
However, the Quebec’s Wildfire Agency defended its own policy saying that there are limited resources in this wide landscape.
In this chaotic situation, it is important and crucial to keep calm, be patient and make good decisions. Even though the wildfires have caused many concerns, disadvantages, and harm for nature, people working together has helped make it better for the citizens that’ve been affected. The Department of Indigenous Service has paid around 55 million dollars to support the communities affected by the fire.