World leaders may face wildfire smoke at Canada G7 summit

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By Ed White

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) -World leaders may face smoke warnings when they gather next week in Alberta as wildfires burned out of control across much of Canada and caused the country’s second-worst fire season in decades.

The Kananaskis area of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, where the Group of Seven leaders’ summit starts on Sunday, is not in a wildfire area. But the country is battling 225 blazes including 120 out of control with some of those fires raging to the west in British Columbia and in northern parts of Alberta.

Canada’s government on Thursday listed Calgary, the nearest major city to Kananaskis, at high risk for deteriorating air quality. Wildfire smoke levels can change quickly depending on wind direction.

Burning forests in provinces to the east are producing smoke that is reaching the eastern U.S. coast. Some rain has fallen in western Canada in recent days, but not enough to douse most of the fires. They have so far consumed 3.7 million hectares of land, the second-largest area for this time of year in decades after 2023, officials said.

Federal officials said at a G7 briefing on Thursday that measures to mitigate risks for the leaders’ summit from wildfires and other potential hazards such as tornadoes and flooding were in place.

Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from communities across western Canada and in northwestern Ontario, some by military aircraft. Two people have died.

Federal officials and politicians at a wildfire briefing on Thursday said climate change had exacerbated the wildfire risk across Canada.

(Reporting by Ed White in Winnipeg; Additional reporting by David Llunggren and Amanda Stephenson; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)