The province of Quebec in Canada has made headway in its fight against wildfires, a contributing factor in the smoke that has covered a significant portion of North America this past week.
There is optimism among some evacuees in the province that they will soon be able to go back home.
Over 400 forest fires are raging across Canada, and firefighters are working hard to put them out.
According to Mr Bergeron, firefighters have been effective in putting out a few flames in the province and confining larger fires that have not expanded as much in the last few days.
On Friday, the government of Quebec announced that it would be providing C$1,500 ($1,120; £890) in compensation to each home in the province that had been required to flee due to the wildfires.
However, despite advances in that western Canadian province, British Columbia (BC) officials have warned that a “wild” fire season is on the horizon.
On Thursday, inhabitants of Tumbler Ridge, located in the northeastern part of British Columbia, were given the order to evacuate because of a neighbouring fire that was swiftly developing.
Residents of Oujé-Bougoumou, located in Quebec in Canada, told that they are receiving regular information about the fire threatening their Cree community. There are approximately 120 fires now burning in the province.
Saguenay is located approximately 392 kilometres (243 miles) to the southwest of the village of Oujé-Bougoumou, and the evacuees from that community have been taking refuge in local universities there.
The deputy chief of Oujé-Bougoumou, Lance Cooper, reported that his community of approximately 650 people was forced to leave hastily on Tuesday due to the rapid advancement of dense clouds of smoke and flames.
He stated that when the efforts to evacuate the town began, the primary focus was on evacuating the town’s most vulnerable residents, such as the elderly and persons with respiratory disorders. This was done out of concern for the town’s air quality.
Within a few hours, though, they got a phone call from the firefighting department in Quebec telling them that the situation had become more dangerous due to wildfire.
“They had told us that everybody must go,” Mr Cooper explained.
After that, he stated, they quickly made a clean sweep of the neighbourhood.
Mr Cooper reported that by the time he left, on the sole highway out of town, what would have been a two-hour drive turned into a six-hour journey. This was because automobiles of evacuees from the region were travelling bumper-to-bumper.
He stated that the refugees from his town had been welcomed in Saguenay, a city with a population of 145,000 people, where they had spent the previous several days sleeping on military mattresses in makeshift shelters set up in local institutions.
However, he assured me that they are in good hands, and the Cree community has been working hard to organize fun activities for the displaced youth, such as paintball tournaments and movie marathons.
Mr Cooper jokes about how it feels like we’re on a camping trip.
However, he stated that the situation has been frightening for the community, as members of the area had never been required to flee previously due to wildfires.
According to what he said, many people are keeping their fingers crossed that their homes will be saved.
As a result of the terrible wildfire season that has already occurred in several parts of Canada, residents of some communities have already lost their homes.
A representative for the Little Red Cree Nation in Alberta informed Global News that approximately 85 structures on the reservation have been damaged due to wildfire.
According to reports from local authorities, at least another 150 homes were damaged in the province of Nova Scotia, located on the Atlantic.
In order to combat the unprecedented wildfire season, Canada depends on the assistance of firefighters from around the world who have travelled to the country.
On Thursday, just over one hundred individuals travelled from France to Quebec; they are scheduled to be deployed on the ground by Saturday.
The unprecedented size and number of fires that have occurred in Canada this season have prompted citizens to wonder if the nation has to increase its capacity for firefighting in order to deal with the effects of climate change, as the government has stated is the case.
“I think we’re probably going to see more and more of these fires down the road,” he added. “I think that’s probably going to be the case.”
It is my sincere hope that not too many of us will ever have to go through the trauma of having our homes burned down due to wildfire.
