Canadian wildfire smoke triggers air quality alerts for millions: What to know

More than 100 million Americans are under air quality alerts as smoke from wildfires in Canada and northern Minnesota blankets parts of the U.S. and releases microscopic particles into the atmosphere that can raise serious health risks.

Shifting winds have pushed thick haze into major metro areas across the Great Lakes, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, reducing visibility, tinting skies and sending pollution levels into unhealthy and even hazardous ranges.

Officials in major U.S. cities from Chicago to New York to Washington, D.C. have urged residents to limit outdoor activity or wear masks during peak pollution hours.

Where are the wildfires burning?

The smoke is wafting into the U.S. from wildfires that have been burning across several Canadian provinces for several days.

The latest numbers from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC), a fire protection service based in Winnipeg, indicated 949 active fires as of Saturday afternoon across all but one of Canada’s 10 provinces and three territories.

The bulk of that activity is in Ontario and the Northwest Territories, with those two areas accounting for more than one-third of active fires. Quebec, Manitoba and British Columbia are also seeing large clusters of fires.

The only Canadian province with no active wildfires is Prince Edward Island, a roughly 2,187-square-mile island off the coasts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Many are burning in remote, heavily forested areas that have made them difficult to reach and contain, as a combination of dry vegetation, persistent heat, drought conditions and lightning fuel rapid ignition and expansion.

The fires have already scorched nearly 3 million hectares as they tear through the country, including destroying an entire Indigenous community in northwestern Ontario.

Just over two dozen members of the Namaygoosisagagun First Nation, also known as the Collins First Nation, were forced to evacuate by boat on Monday as flames quickly spread toward the community.

“I’ve never seen a fire that big. It was angry. It........

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