They are as little known as they are dangerous: zombie fires.
After last summer's Canadian megafires, which devastated nearly 18 million hectares, an area larger than Greece, some lands in Western Canada are still burning.
Despite the winter.
Under the snow-covered lands of this month of February, the fire continues to slowly consume the humus (a thick plant material which makes up a layer which can reach up to 80 cm) and the lignite (a type of coal).
Canadian firefighters are therefore still working on nearly 150 localized fires in the West of the country.
A never-ending struggle...
To hope to overcome it, they are obliged to intervene regularly by scraping the smoking areas and spraying them with water.
Eradicating them is painstaking work because these zombie fires are difficult to detect.
In the peat bogs of Manitoba in Canada, the water sent by the firefighters makes its way but instantly evaporates in the heat of the fire.
And the lack of snow doesn't help anything.
“We are having an exceptional winter after an exceptional summer,” laments Josée St-Onge, spokesperson for the firefighters of the province of Alberta.
A race against time for these firemen since with the little snow that fell this winter, they are already fearing a severe drought in spring.
And therefore, new fires.
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Fires in Gironde: “Our priority is to save lives”, declares the prefect
With 18 million hectares burned, the summer of 2023 was the worst in Canadian history.
And if these zombie fires are still burning by the start of fire season in a few months, we can fear an even more disastrous year.
In France, the Gironde forests have also been under close surveillance since the fires of summer 2022. Zombie fires are still there and have been burning for two years now.