Canada to evacuate 600 from Fort Hope as wildfire smoke reaches US

The Canadian military is set to evacuate 600 individuals from the isolated indigenous community of Fort Hope in northern Ontario, as forest wildfires pose a significant threat and have generated smoke across a vast area of the United States. On Friday evening, Federal Emergencies Minister Eleanor Olszewski revealed that aircraft will facilitate the evacuation due to the region's limited road access. Thousands have already been relocated from impacted regions to southern Ontario cities. In Canada, major forest fires have become a yearly norm, with climate experts attributing this to rising temperatures that create drier woodlands and elevate fire hazards. The federal natural resources ministry noted 69 new fires overnight, raising the total to 955, with nearly 11,000 square miles (28,500 square km) burned, although this is below the five-year average.