Premier Danielle Smith says the government is bringing in arson investigators from outside the province to trace the cause of some wildfires during an unprecedented season in Alberta.
In an interview on Real Talk Ryan Jespersen, the host asked Smith how she reconciles her government’s energy policies with experts linking this year’s extreme fire season to climate change. “It’s a real-life metaphor — happening in front of us with a historic wildfire season,” Jespersen said to Smith during Thursday’s show. “Every expert that we talk to indicates the significant factor that climate change is playing on our susceptibility to wildfire and on the conditions that lead to these massive blazes that are happening earlier and earlier in the season.” Smith responded that she’s concerned about arson being the cause in some of the fires. “We are bringing in arson investigators from outside the province,” she said. “We have almost 175 fires with no known cause at the moment.
Sometimes they are very easy to trace — when you have lightning storms, it’s easy to trace. When you have a train derailment, that’s easy to trace.” Scientists have said fires are larger and more intense, often burning throughout the night, due to climate change.
Jespersen followed up with Smith during Thursday’s interview, noting that the hot and dry conditions that allow fires to grow are connected to climate change.