Wildfires

Western wildfires go global

Smoke from Canada’s wildfires, which have burned vast tracks of forest in B.C. and the Northwest Territories, has been spotted as far away as Portugal.

And its travel is fuelled in part by incredible clouds created by the fires that act like chimneys funnelling smoke and ash as high as 10 to 15 kilometres into the atmosphere.

California

A pair of wildfires burning without restraint about 8 miles apart in northeast California became the focus of state and federal firefighters Sunday as authorities reported that one of the blazes had destroyed eight homes and prompted the precautionary evacuation of a small long-term care hospital.

The two fires, among 14 burning in the state, started within a day of each other in Lassen National Forest and had expanded into private property and scorched 90 square miles as of Sunday morning, up from 39 square miles a day earlier.