The Canadian military has been put on alert to evacuate residents of a remote community in the province of Ontario, which is threatened by massive fires that have engulfed large areas of the country and sent thick smoke even towards the United States.

Emergency Situations Minister Eleanor Olszewski announced Friday night that the military will use aircraft to evacuate about 600 residents from Fort Hope, a community in northwestern Ontario where some of the most dangerous wildfires are burning. The area has limited road infrastructure and relies largely on air transportation. Meanwhile, thousands of people have already been evacuated from affected regions to more southern parts of Ontario.

According to Canada's federal Ministry of Natural Resources, 69 new fires were reported overnight, bringing the total number of active fires in the country to 955.

The area burned so far is about 28,500 square kilometers, a figure lower than the average of the last five years, but the spread of smoke has caused serious concerns about air quality in many areas of North America.

Winds have carried the smoke across the US border, forcing authorities to issue health advisories for millions of residents in several US states, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Washington. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rated air quality in some areas as “unhealthy”, while parts of eastern Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh, were classified as “very unhealthy”.

Climate experts say fires in Canada have become an increasingly common phenomenon due to higher temperatures and drought, which have created ideal conditions for the spread of flames in the country's vast forests.

US President Donald Trump has criticized Canada's forest management, linking the spread of smoke to what he called weak fire prevention policies. In response to these statements, Minister Olszewski said that Canada has invested about 12 billion Canadian dollars since 2020 in forest protection and fire prevention, as the country faces increasingly hot and dry conditions.

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