Summer Of Smoke: WCCO Visits Canada's Hub Of Operations As Nation Battles 5,000 Wildfires

By Jonah Kaplan, CBS Minnesota

August 1, 2023

WINNIPEG, MB, CANADA -- The country known as "The Great White North" is also known for being green, as Canada is home to nearly 10% of the world's forests.

Those same forests, however, are now the fuel to what is perhaps the most intense wildfire season in the nation's history, if not the most significant wildfire crisis around the globe. More than 5,000 fires have raged since May across Canada, tearing through at least 29 million acres of land – and counting.

Tens of thousands of Canadians have been displaced from their homes because of the flames, while the mountainous plumes of smoke continue to pollute large swaths of North America, including Minnesota and Wisconsin.

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