More than 37 million acres burned as Canada struggles to combat devastating wildfires

Geoff Bennett:

It's been a very difficult summer in Canada, as that country has battled one wildfire after another. More than 37 million acres have burned, and the smoke from those fires has at times affected air here in the U.S.

A new analysis out this week finds that climate change increases the likelihood of the hot, dry weather that helped fuel the unprecedented wildfire season.

Dan Rivers Independent Television News has the story.

Dan Rivers:

This is a glimpse into the heart of Canada's wildfire crisis, an inferno consuming everything in its path, with flames leaping hundreds of feet into the air.

This new video shows a blaze near Kelowna, just one of more than 1,000 fires raging across this vast country. It ripped across the hillsides so fast, people had to evacuate across a lake. The blaze then jumped more than a mile across the water.

Man:

One of the embers crossed the lake, and now this side of the lake is on fire.

Dan Rivers:

Those who escaped still struggling to comprehend its speed and destruction.

Dan Boyer, Kelowna Resident:

I can't imagine. We always just say, oh, it's just a house, but, boy, when you're — when you could lose it, it's — it becomes a lot more.

Dan Rivers:

Blair Savage has been battling the fire from the air, but couldn't save his own house.

Blair Savage, Pilot:

We lost our family home and dislodged money for ranches and farms and things that we have seen. The fires and the behavior the fire is unprecedented.

Dan Rivers:

It's left families camping in carparks.

Frederica (ph) Grooters got out with her dogs and her parents, but not much else. The family car business was incinerated. This video shows that their house, amazingly, survived, thanks to a sprinkler system, but nothing else in their neighborhood did.

Suzanne Grooters, Kelowna Resident:

Oh, my goodness. Yes, it's devastating to see that video from that helicopter view, and seeing that all of our neighbors' houses are just to the ground, to the cement floor.

(crosstalk)

Suzanne Grooters:

And that is horrific, horrific to see.

Dan Rivers:

Wildfires are nothing new here, but it is the scale and ferocity of this one which is different. Those on the front lines are clear about what's happening.

Darren Lee, Fire Chief, Lake County District:

We have had really unprecedented drought conditions, and so everything is just a tinderbox ready to go.

Dan Rivers:

For now, the firefighters think they have the upper hand here. They will be bolstered by the Canadian Army this week, but Canada's summer of fire is still a long way from being burnt out.