Scenes From the Front Lines as Wildfires Rage in Canada and the West

Wildfires spread throughout parts of Northern California, the Pacific Northwest and western Canada this week, causing evacuation orders and sending tens of thousands of firefighters to combat the blazes. Buildings burned to the ground, cities were blanketed in smoke, and hundreds of thousands of acres of land were scorched.

The authorities in Calgary, Alberta’s largest city, issued a health advisory saying that smoke from the wildfires was expected to cause very poor air quality, and on Thursday smoke had already reached as far as New England. More than 40 fires were burning in Oregon and Washington, including the largest in the nation — the Durkee fire, near Oregon’s border with Idaho, which covered more than 268,000 acres as of Thursday afternoon.

The Park fire in Northern California has burned more than 71,400 acres and led to the arrest of a man who officials said had caused the fire.

Here’s what photographers and video journalist are seeing on the ground as the blazes spread.

Western Canada

Several buildings were destroyed by fire. Danielle Smith, the premier of Alberta, said in a news conference that the damage would require a “significant rebuild.”

An airplane flying low over a fire burning on the edge of Williams Lake, British Columbia.

Downtown Calgary was covered in a haze of smoke from fires in British Columbia.

Oregon

An image provided by the U.S. Forest Service shows plums of smoke over rolling fields in eastern Oregon.

Advertisement

California

CreditCredit…Action News Now via Associated Press

Firefighters worked to put out flames that had consumed structures in Chico, Calif.

A home was engulfed in flames as the Park fire burned near Chico.

Residents in Chico sat on their cars to watch the fire from a distance.

A plume of smoke hung over a field in Chico.