Going into the historic fire year of 2023, the average fire season in Canada saw a bit north of 5 million hectares burn.
One conflagration in Saskatchewan has burned at least a tenth of the annual average — and rapidly growing — over recent days. The Shoe Fire, originally two fires but now joined into one, was around 500,000 acres on Tuesday with no imminent signs of it calming way down.
The image above shows the rapid growth and comparably large size versus the city lights of Saskatoon (88 square miles, 288,000 population).
The May 27 report from the interagency forest center showed about 1.5 million acres have burned so far this year in Canada. That’s ahead of last year’s impressive pace.