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Thick smoke billowed from forest fires in Quebec's backcountry on Monday, sparking smog alerts in Montreal and the US city of Boston, and putting city firefighters in Ottawa on alert, officials said.
Fifty-two blazes burned north of Montreal, eight of them out of control, blackening thousands of hectares of forests in Quebec, the Quebec forest fire protection unit (Sopfeu) said.
In Ottawa, residents awoke to a strong smell of smoke, and fire crews were dispatched to all corners of the capital city to monitor approaching fires.
In Montreal, a smog alert was announced for much of the southern part of the province, along the Saint Lawrence seaway.
South of the border, the US National Weather Service issued air quality alerts for the border states of Maine and New Hampshire, as well as Massachusetts, with the thickest smoke reaching Cape Cod and Nantucket.
"Smoke from a number of large fires in southern Quebec has begun to move over portions of southwest New Hampshire... as well as eastern Massachusetts," the US National Weather Service said.
