Unassigned

Canadian Fire Chief Opens Wildfire Update With a Land Acknowledgement, Coughing Americans Unimpressed

Doug P.
Doug P.  |  4:40 PM on July 18, 2026

A couple hundred wildfires burning in Canada have blanketed large parts of the U.S. with thick smoke, and it just keeps coming: 

Tens of millions of Americans are enduring another day of smoky skies, irritated eyes and bad air quality, as Canadian wildfire smoke spread again over huge swathes of the US, affecting about 109 million people across the midwest, mid-Atlantic and north-east. 

The pungent smoke blanketed cities such as Chicago and Detroit, where residents on Friday were warned to stay indoors and reduce activity levels after the air-quality index reached a “hazardous” 361, according to the government website AirNow. 

As smoke plumes swirled around the eastern US, mostly from about 200 out-of-control wildfires in Canada, Donald Trump threatened to impose additional tariffs on its northern neighbor, with the US president accusing the Canadian government of “willful negligence” in its management of forestry.

Advertisement

For a lesson in woke firefighting priorities when it comes to hope for extinguishing the blazes and sparing millions from inhaling more smoke than Keith Richards during the entire 1970s, we turn to this fire official in Canada. Here's how the update started: 

Well, that's good to know. 

Here's what everybody else is thinking: 

Nailed it!

Recommended

Body Discovered Inside Ayanna Pressley’s Million-Dollar House Owned by Her Ex-Con Husband
justmindy
Advertisement

They might not want the land back after forest policies in Canada cause it all to burn down. 

*****