The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is still investigating what caused the June 30 fire that left the Village of Lytton as nothing more a pile of charred rubble. The Canadian Wildland Fire Information System says the number of forest fires this summer was well above the 10-year average.

Mike Flannigan, research chair in Predictive Services, Emergency Management and Fire Science at TRU, said it was concerning that the three biggest wildfire seasons recorded since 1950 have been in the past five years.

“Three or four decades ago, you’d see one or two challenging years in a decade,” Mr Flannigan told The National. “Now we’re seeing three or four and in the coming decades it’s going to be five or six. And some of those challenging years will be exceedingly challenging.” Read more