Smoke alarm

MALLORCA has been placed on extreme forest fire alert just as smoke drifting from Canada’s uncontrollable blazes reaches the island.

The fumes travelling nearly 6,000 kilometres serve as a warning of the dangers forest fires pose to the Balearics. The smoke from the Canadian wildfires in Quebec and Ontario , which blanketed several major cities this month, including New York City and Toronto, causing eerie red skies, has crossed the North Atlantic. Although little more than a haze, the smoke could worsen the threat of fires in Mallorca by blocking the surface heat necessary to form thunderstorms, but it is not likely to significantly impact air quality. The Balearic Environment Ministry declared the risk of forest fire this year a ‘climatic emergency.’ It has put 350 firefighters on standby and commissioned helicopters and planes to be able to quickly deploy between the islands if necessary. Last year, a record 307,000 hectares of land were destroyed in 493 fires in Spain, according to the Commission’s European Forest Fire Information System.