Quebec Minister of Employment Kateri Champagne Jourdain responds to the Opposition, at the legislature in Quebec City, Friday, Dec. 2, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot
MONTREAL – Quebec Premier François Legault says his government doesn’t have the capacity to fight all of the forest fires currently burning in the province.
Legault told reporters Quebec can fight around 30 fires, but with more than 160 burning in the province and other provinces fighting fires of their own, his government is looking internationally for support.
He says no lives have been lost in the fires, but firefighters were forced to pull back from the hamlet of Clova, Que., around 325 kilometres northwest of Montreal, and it was left to burn.
Legault says an additional 200 firefighters are coming from France and the United States, and Quebec is also in talks with Costa Rica, Portugal and Chile as it searches for additional resources.
Fires have forced about 10,000 people from their homes in Quebec, with most of those in the western Abitibi region and the eastern Côte-Nord region.
Legault says that with rain in the forecast for the Côte-Nord, he’s now most worried about Abitibi, where no rain is expected for five days.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 5, 2023.
