Wildfires in Western Canada--Animal survival

[Catherine]

Most of the fires were caused by lightning strikes. The weather conditions have been hot and dry and you get a kind of heat lightning. There is a real build up of electricity. Or when there was a thunder storm, the lightning caused the fire and there was not enough rain to put it out.

A few of the fires have had human causes. Cigarettes are the worst. Campfires can cause fires, but there has been a campfire restriction for some time.
Some of these fires can smoulder under the surface for a long time.
One fire in Alberta(when I was there) smouldered underground in the winter and flared up in the spring. Some fires just burn along the surface and the trees will survive. More intense fires take out the trees, but by next spring the area will be green and new trees will start growing.
A really bad fire burns below the surface as well and leaves the area barren for awhile.
Loss of animal life depends on the type of fire and how fast it moves.
There is no doubt that this is one of the worst years ever for the sheer numbers of fires. There is no way we will ever know how many little animals will have died. It is a tragic loss of life. I have hiked trough some of these areas and it breaks my heart to think of what has happened to them.
Nature will regenerate, but the loss is terrible.