TORONTO: A 24-year-old firefighter was killed by a falling tree while battling a forest blaze northeast of Jasper in the Western Canadian province of Alberta on Saturday, the police said in a statement.

The deceased was a resident of Calgary and based out of the Rocky Mountain House Fire Base, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.

The RCMP said it was notified of a serious injury sustained on Saturday by an Alberta Wildland fire employee who was extracted from the scene. Nearly a third of Jasper’s structures were destroyed when a massive wildfire, with flames burning 330 feet (100 metres) high, hit the popular Alberta tourist town in late July. There are currently 120 active wildfires in the province.

“Heartbroken by the news that a firefighter has lost his life while battling the wildfires in Jasper,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a social media post on X, adding “his loss is deeply felt.”

Alberta’s Minister of Forestry and Parks Todd Loewen also expressed his condolences.

California wildfire

More than 6,000 firefighters in California’s Central Valley continued to battle the largest blaze in the US on Saturday, which burned its way into the history books as the state’s fourth-largest conflagration on record.

There was barely a taste of rain on Saturday from thunderstorms that brought wind and rainfall of zero to one-tenth of an inch, forecasters said. The heat of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) along with winds up to 25 mph or more in some spots, offered little relief to the firefighters trying to contain the Park Fire, scorching the wilderness terrain some 100 miles (161 km) north of Sacramento, the state capital.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2024