Rain in eastern Canada helps massive firefighting efforts for wildfires

Rain has arrived in eastern Canada. Although the situation in Quebec remained critical, Saturday brought relief to firefighters in the province of Nova Scotia who had been battling historic wildfires for nearly a week.

85 percent of the fires that were posing a threat to Halifax, the provincial capital of Nova Scotia, have been brought under control to "a state of being held," according to officials, who announced this at a press conference on Saturday.

The current rain will help with the fire suppression issues, but this fire is still burning and won't be declared out for a while, according to Dave Steeves of the provincial Department of Natural Resources.
Half of the 16,000 people who had been evacuated from Halifax's northeastern suburbs had been permitted to go home by Friday night.

Dave Meldrum, deputy chief of Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Services, praised the rain, saying, "This is great."

"This will soak into the ground more effectively than a heavy downpour that runs off and disappears."

Over the weekend, Canadian and American firefighters are anticipated to assist in putting out wildfires in the area.

Following significant flare-ups in May, particularly in the Prairie provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, firefighting efforts have recently been concentrated in Nova Scotia on the Atlantic coast and the French-speaking province of Quebec.

More than 2,000 more people have been evacuated due to the more than 130 forest fires that are still burning in Quebec, 80 of which are thought to be out of control.

Isabelle Gariepy of the SOPFEU forest fire protection service warned that because of the variable winds today, anything could change at any moment.

In the north of Quebec, close to the St. Lawrence River, a fire that compelled more than 10,000 people to flee the area around Sept-Iles was still "out of control" but had not changed over night, according to authorities.

As a result of global warming, extreme weather events have become more frequent and intense in Canada in recent years.