‘Impossible to let go of our guard’: BJ Fuchs, a farmer in western Canada, is still scarred from the past few days’ battle with the fire that has spared his property but not the surrounding fields and forests.

All the stables intended for his cows are empty and shrouded in thick smoke. You can’t see anything five meters away.

“The fire was really massive, it’s pretty scary when the flames are so close to you,” says the man, who wears a cowboy hat and a beard of several days. Shortly before the flames hit, he and his son managed to evacuate his entire herd of almost 1,000 animals.

On his property, near where manure was spread to stop the fire, smoke is still rising from a pile of burned spruce and poplar logs.

The province of Alberta has been hit by fires of unprecedented proportions since early May, which have already burned more than 400,000 hectares. The province declared a state of emergency and asked the federal government for help.

About 70 fires were still active as of Friday, including 20 out of control.

“It’s going to be a constant battle until we have a lot more rain, that’s for sure,” he added, saying he feared the return of the high temperatures forecast for this weekend.

Like its neighbors, it is alert and constantly monitors the fields for outbreaks of fire. He feels sorry for the dry state of all of nature.

The province, one of the largest oil producing regions in the world, is also a rural area with many farms.

Almost half are cattle ranches like BJ Fuchs’s, but the province also produces a lot of wheat, corn, and oilseeds. Canada is a major agricultural exporter.

“Due to the size of the area of ​​the fires, literally hundreds of thousands of animals are potentially affected,” said Alberta Prime Minister Danielle Smith.

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– “Hopeless” –

Irrigate the buildings, create huge pools of water, cut brushwood to build fire barriers… all farmers are hard at work.

“It’s hopeless, we don’t know where it’s going to stop or if it’s going to stop,” says Jessee Crowther, also a rancher who saw part of his neighbor’s farm go up in smoke.

“There’s always something,” he complains, referring to the natural disasters that keep hitting the region, amidst torched tractors and farm machinery.

“Drought, hail, heavy rain – we’ll take what comes and keep going,” adds the man with the broad build and the black cap on his head.

This unprecedented fire season follows difficult years notably marked by a severe drought in 2021 that led to crop declines in central and western Canada and reduced agricultural yields by 40%.

That year, a “historic” heat dome claimed hundreds of lives and caused major fires.

In recent years, western Canada has been hit by extreme weather events, the intensity and frequency of which have increased due to climate change.

The fires leave no choice but to be “prepared,” explains Trent Stanley, because “It takes the local firefighters, who are volunteers, half an hour to get to the station and another half hour to get here , but until then, your belongings are gone.

The help of the residents is therefore sometimes crucial. In particular, authorities this year have urged farmers to uproot and sow as much as possible, as this allows them to bury sources of fuel and slow the spread of fires.

But sometimes there is nothing for cattle to do.

“It’s impossible for me” to move her. “This spring I have 850 fattening cows. It’s not like we can load them in a few minutes,” laments this farmer in a big cowboy hat.

“I imagine the plan could be to open the fences so maybe the cattle would know where to go, but I doubt it,” he said.

bur-tib/rle