Canada continues to burn and is experiencing an unprecedented year on the fire front. As of June 8, around 2,300 wildfires had gone up in smoke across a total area of ​​3.8 million hectares, a number well above the average for the past decade.

Three provinces were particularly affected: Alberta, Nova Scotia and Quebec. The first fires broke out in Alberta in western Canada Around April 30, the army intervened to help the already out of breath firefighters. To date, 73 fires are still active there. Of them, about twenty are still considered out of control by the government. A few days later, a huge fire broke out in the coastal province of Nova Scotia, burning around 26,656 hectares, the most important in the history of the territory. The flames also continue to rage in Quebec. Accordingly Forest Fire Protection Society (Sopfeu) 137 fires are still active, 92 of which are out of control. A total of 639,600 hectares of forest and scrubland were burned in the province.

More than 20,000 people are being evacuated across the country, half of them in Quebec. The government is preparing to evacuate another 4,000. At the same time, the international community is providing support by sending firefighters. “Hundreds of American firefighters have just arrived in Canada and more are on the way” This was announced by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday evening, June 7, after a meeting with US President Joe Biden. On the French side, a hundred firefighters left to support their colleagues in Quebec, Emmanuel Macron said TwitterJune 4th.

It’s hard to imagine the extent of the damage if these fires took place in France, which is 18 times smaller than Canada. To look at them, franceinfo put the fires in Canada in perspective using four major French cities: Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse. Thus, these 3.8 million hectares would make up almost 7% of France’s territory, which covers around 55 million hectares.

More than 360 times the area of ​​Paris

The area burned by the fires in Canada is 3.16 times the area of ​​the Ile-de-France region. This corresponds to a circle completely destroyed by the flames with a radius of about 110 km, the linear distance between Paris and Rouen. Compared to the area of ​​the capital, this is more than 360 times the area of ​​Paris intramural.

More than 158 times that of Marseille

If we go further south in the country, towards Marseille, France’s ninth largest city by area at 24,000 hectares, the comparison is just as startling. Canadian wildfires cover 121% of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, more than the entire region and 158.3 times the area of ​​Marseille. The fire would completely burn down the cities of Aix-en-Provence, Toulon, Nice or even La-Seyne-sur-Mer.

Almost 794 times the city of Lyon

On the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes side, Canadian fires cover 54.51% of this 6.97 million hectare region and would burn down 794 Lyon-sized towns along the way. They would spread to Switzerland and could destroy Geneva.

More than 321 times that of Toulouse

Fires the size of Canada would also devastate more than 321 cities including Toulouse, covering 11,830 hectares. Returned to Occitania, they would represent 52.25% of the region, the second largest in France.