Canada is in flames. What you need to know about fire science

Guest: Mike Flannigan, chair in Predictive Services, Emergency Management and Fire Science at Thompson Rivers University

Canada is on fire from coast-to-coast. As a wildfire burns on northern Vancouver Island, Alberta was in a state of emergency for most of May. As seasonal fires began shockingly early in Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia relied on weekend rain to contain flames that forced thousands to evacuate. It has been a dynamic and dramatic situation. Experts say the fire season is starting earlier and going later with hotter, dryer weather thanks to climate change. Adding to that, 50 per cent of these fires are actually started by people, accelerating an already challenging problem. The situation has many desperately wondering what will it take to make them stop. The bad news is, they won’t. It comes down to having resources to manage them and a shift in government approach from reactive to proactive.

Audio Sources: CBC News/TikTok, CBC/The National

This episode was produced by Brian Bradley and Paulo Marques