A helicopter flies by the Wesley Ridge wildfire near Coombs, British Columbia, on Sunday.
© Canadian PressA helicopter flies by the Wesley Ridge wildfire near Coombs, British Columbia, on Sunday.
More than 700 active wildfires burning across Canada and about two-thirds are currently out-of-control

Billowing smoke from hundreds of out-of-control wildfires - most of which are in the Canadian Prairies - have caused severe air quality alerts across Canada and the United States.

Detroit, Michigan, and the Canadian cities of Montreal and Toronto, recorded some of the worst air quality in the world on Monday, according to a ranking by IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company.

More than 700 active wildfires are currently burning across Canada and about two-thirds of them are now out-of-control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC), a non-profit organization that is owned by government agencies.

One brush fire, in British Columbia, was reportedly caused when an osprey dropped a fish on to a power line, sparking a small blaze which was later extinguished.

But most of the current fires that are causing the poor, smoggy air quality and reduced visibility are connected to warmer-than-average temperatures, drought conditions, decreased levels of snowpack and low soil moisture, according to Natural Resources Canada.


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