Bald Mountain Wildfire. In the Grande Prairie Forest in northern Alberta. Estimated at 60 square miles and growing. Image: Alberta Fire Service
Air quality dangerous in large swath of North America
GRAND PRAIRIE, Man. – Giant wildfires burned out of control across northern Alberta and Manitoba, sending scorched dust particles high air currents over south-central Canada and as far south in the United States as as Chicago and St. Louis. The Alberta Fire Service said the fire season was off to an unusually early start. So far 150 times more area in Alberta has burned than in the last five years combined by the same date. The situation was similar in the northern prairies of the adjoining province of Manitoba.