Nearly 20,000 inhabitants in the town of Port Alberni in western Canada are ready to flee their homes as a forest fire, which has already consumed the adjacent mountain, spreads uncontrollably.
The unusual thing is that the so-called Mount Underwood fire is raging on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, which previously had been spared from forest fires. The fire is described by local authorities as "enormous".
It is still unclear whether Port Alberni, about a mile from the fire, will be evacuated.
The fire season is described as Canada's second-worst so far. Currently, around 700 fires are ongoing throughout the country, which have totally ravaged 7.4 million hectares of land. This can be compared to 17.3 million hectares in the worst fire year of 2023.
