Fact Check: How Canada’s wildfires really started

The cause of Canada’s wildfires, and the role of climate change, have sparked rumours and misinformation.

More than 20,000 people have been evacuated due to wildfires across Canada, including in British Columbia (above) | Photo Credit: BC WIldfire Service/Xinhua/IMAGO

A recent TikTok video, posted by DW’s environment series Planet A, explained some of the triggers behind the ongoing wildfires in Canada, including extreme heat, drought and human carelessness.

The video received more than 1,500 comments as of June 12, with many people expressing their support for the firefighting efforts. But the comments also included multiple misconceptions about the cause of the fires.

Claim: Wildfires all started at the same time

Several commenters pointed out how “unusual” it was that the wildfires in Nova Scotia “all started at the same time”, with some suggesting they were intentional.

The fires did start within days of each other, leading to a sudden burst of media coverage that may have made it seem like everything was happening at once. But a look at official government sources says otherwise.

The first wildfire in southwestern Nova Scotia started in Shelburne County on May 27, according to the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System, and has since spread over nearly 250 square kilometres (some 100 square miles) to become the largest wildfire in the province’s recorded history. An interactive map on the CWFIS website was first updated with the Shelburne fire a day later, on May 28.

In subsequent days, new wildfires were reported in Yarmouth County, to the west, and near the province capital, Halifax, with the Nova Scotia government issuing its first update on the emergency on May 29.

The wildfires have not been limited to Canada’s East Coast, either. Firefighters are currently battling blazes in Ontario and Quebec, and out-of-control fires in the western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate in May.

As of June 12, statistics from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, an intergovernmental agency, show there are 2,467 active fires across the country. The agency expects 2023 to be Canada’s worst wildfire season to date, with about 4.7 million hectares (11.6 million acres) burned so far.

Claim: Helicopters with flamethrowers intentionally started fires

The Planet A video included a clip that showed a yellow, blue, and red helicopter flying over a forested area, carrying a device that spouted flames onto the trees below.

According to the US Bureau of Land Management, quoted in a July 2022 report by The Associated Press, this method uses a tool called a helitorch, which is employed to clear away excess dry vegetation and other flammable materials as part of wildfire prevention efforts. This March 2017 clip from the Bureau of Land Management on Facebook shows a similar prescribed fire.

The controlled fires are used to create a firebreak, a cleared area that acts as a buffer to limit fuel available for future wildfires in the hot spring and summer months, a Bureau of Land Management spokesperson told AP.

They involve releasing a mixture of ignited fuel in strategic areas, are carried out under strict safety protocols and during optimal weather conditions, to make sure the fires don’t spread out of control. Firefighters on the ground keep the blazes within predetermined boundaries.

Another firefighting strategy, used to fight active wildfires, is back burning. This “involves starting small fires along a man-made or natural firebreak in front of a main fire front”, according to The International Association of Fire and Rescue Services. The controlled fires, which “burn back towards the main fire front”, are designed to reduce the available fuel and stop a wildfire from spreading further.

Claim: Canada has not experienced recent drought

Certain commenters pointed out that it was impossible for the fires to start naturally, claiming the Atlantic provinces do not have “dry heat” or “extreme hot weather” this time of year. And it is true that the weather in Nova Scotia, which is almost entirely surrounded by the sea, is often characterised by high humidity and more moderate temperatures.

But the Canadian Drought Monitor, a government agency, said the weeks leading up to the Nova Scotia fires were “significantly dry across southern parts of the Atlantic Region”, with parts of Nova Scotia seeing less than 50 per cent of the average monthly precipitation.

The agency also noted that “a large pocket of severe drought” had been recorded for much of south and central Nova Scotia which, combined with “significantly warm temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius [86 Fahrenheit]”, helped to create the ideal conditions for the wildfires.

May was significantly warmer and drier across wide swaths of the country, according to the Canadian Drought Monitor, with 47 per cent of the country classified as “abnormally dry” or experiencing “moderate to extreme drought”. The agency said the driest conditions “were reported along both east and west coasts, northern Alberta, northwestern Ontario and eastern Quebec” — notably the regions which have been devastated by recent wildfires.

Claim: Climate change is not to blame for Canada’s fires

While it is not possible to link the recent wildfires directly to human-caused climate change, the extreme weather conditions that favour wildfires have been attributed to global heating. “Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of wildland fires and creating longer fire seasons,” Mike Norton, director general of the Canadian Forestry Centre, told reporters on June 5.

Parts of Canada—as in many regions around the world—are seeing hotter, drier summers, along with sudden intense storms, which can increase the risk of lightning strikes, which have been responsible for many fires in the province of Quebec in recent days.

Long-range forecasts have said Atlantic Canada is in for a hot summer, with Global News meteorologist Anthony Farnell projecting a “warmer-than-normal July and August”.

Research published in the Canadian Journal of Forest Research in 2018 reported an increase in fire activity over the last half-century, noting that blazes have become larger and that the fire season is “starting approximately one week earlier and ending one week later” since 1959.