Q COSTA RICA – A group of 42 firefighters (bomberos) from Costa Rica will be helping their Canadian counterparts with a large number of really bad wildfires that have been popping up all over Canada.
Thousands of people have been evacuated from the 45,000 square kilometers affected by the fires in the provinces of Quebec in eastern Canada and Alberta, and British Columbia to the west.
The Costa Rican Foreign Minister, Arnoldo André, announced that the Canadian government asked for their help and the 42 firefighters are leaving today (Tuesday, June 13) to help out.
The Canadian Ambassador to Costa Rica, Elizabeth Williams, thanked Costa Rica for the support and said that the Costa Rican firefighters are headed to the north of Alberta where the situation is really bad.
The firefighters headed for Canada are from the Sistema Nacional de Áreas de Conservación – National System of Conservation Areas – experienced in fighting forest fires in Costa Rica.
The wildfires have made the air quality pretty bad not just in Canada but even in the US, prompting air pollution advisories in several places, including New York City
People have had to leave their homes in the tens of thousands. More than four million hectares have already been lost and it’s looking like this is gonna be the worst wildfire season ever.
Did climate change have anything to do with Canada’s wildfires? At least one Canadian politician seems to think so. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted that “we’re seeing more and more of these fires as a result of climate change”.
