Wildfires

Russia spikes clouds to drench raging wildfires

Russia is using Soviet-era technology to make chemically induced rain clouds in desperate bid to stop raging wildfires.

Black smoke has already travelled 5,000 miles, hitting Canada and parts of the US, as the out-of-control fires spreading.

Originally invented to bring sunshine to the Red Square for communist military parades, the high-tech plan sess clouds spiked with a chemical cocktail causing precipitation to drench out-of-control flames affecting Yakutia - the world’s coldest region.

Brown bears are fleeing the burning Siberian taiga and venturing close to towns and villages where they are being shot as a danger to people.

Greenpeace say territories equal to the size of Scotland and Northern Ireland combined has been destroyed in Russian wildfires in recent weeks - including swathes of irreplaceable ancient boreal forest.

Wildfires - British Columbia, Canada

As much of B.C. blisters under a heat wave, 11 new fires have sprung up across the province since Friday. Crews also continue to battle the 500-hectare East Shuswap Road wildfire east of Kamloops, which remains classified as “out of control.”

According to the B.C. Wildfire Service, there were 61 fires burning across the province on Saturday, about half of them lightning-caused and at least 18 of them human-caused.