If the smoke in the air in Toronto feels apocalyptic, that's because it is
Fire is becoming something of a theme in Canadian lives, in my life retroactively, as climate change advances. I cannot grasp the hugeness of the calamity we're facing so I'll tell you about harbingers of dread.
I've written before about being evacuated as a child to escape fire overtaking Sioux Lookout, one of the tiny northern Canadian towns where I was raised. It seemed relevant because that year the town was once again threatened by gigantic fire. Now it's happening once more nearby, in Sandy Lake First Nation.
What's more, an Alberta town I know by heart is under fire threat as well, and another near where I was born in northern Manitoba. What once was notable is becoming a habit, a toxic, sinister pattern. We face death by landscape, as Margaret Atwood wrote in a famous story.
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Fire smoke drifting east has me wearing a mask in downtown Toronto, where I live as an adult and where the biggest fire hazard is arson, commonplace in a city dotted with ill-financed pre-pandemic developments. I would have realized earlier that I was choking on my past lives burning down, but irony is often lost on me.
Gta
Toronto air quality at 'very high risk' due to wildfire smoke — and is currently among the worst in the world
Kristjan Lautens, Anastasia Blosser, Elissa Mendes
But after the 2024 Jasper fire and the 2016 Fort McMurray catastrophe, huge unquenchable fires are no longer singular, they're typical, and people suffer the same way: the motel nights; endless campgrounds; kids clutching the one toy they were allowed to take.
People are living in profound fear and flying out in tiny planes. They're not me, safe but sleepless in a distant city mentally walking down remembered sidewalks noting all the battered vinyl-siding structures they may never see again.
When I was growing up, there was a terrible fire near Kapuskasing, a place that I love and would yearn for if I allowed myself emotions like that. A teenage girl I knew died horribly in a controlled burn. A friend's brother drowned, no reason, just went under as you do. Northern teens die in northern ways.
The entire town revolved around the pulp and paper mill where the parents of everyone I went to school with worked for decades. My school friends may still be working in what's left of the mill.
Trees were us. Now they're vanishing in an almost indescribably violent way. If there has never been a better time to be a human than right now, journalist John Vaillant writes, 'there has never been a better time to be a fire.'
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The Canadian Ophthalmological Society offers tips to protect your eyes as wildfire smoke blankets parts of Canada. (June 6, 2025 / The Canadian Press)
I am unable to write well about the Star's Fresh Air Fund summer camp charity because I can't explain that in my world you didn't go into the woods for fun, you were already deep inside them and hoping for the best. They're not instructive and packed with artistic history like Algonquin, they're implacable.
I grew up on the edge of the great boreal forest the size of France. When mothers told kids to go out and play, they meant out and they meant all day. It was like entering a whale, on your own with billions of trees, attractive in aggregate but each one spiky and sticky to climb. Snake balls (look it up) writhed.
I was a kid, I wasn't Radisson. I respected the bush, as we called it, because unless you were Indigenous you had no way of managing it or even truly understanding it.
An aerial view shows spruce trees of the Canadian boreal forest west of Baie-Comeau, Quebec. The boreal forest, which is only second to the Amazon in terms of its vital role in ensuring the future of the planet, encircles the Arctic — and it is in just as much danger from climate change as the South American rainforest. (Photo by Ed JONES / AFP) (Photo by ED JONESED JONES/AFP via Getty Images)
ED JONESED JONES AFP via Getty I
Enough about trees. In 2022, Channel-Port aux Basques, a famously rugged Newfoundland town where my surgeon father had briefly worked, was hit by Hurricane Fiona and partly destroyed. It wasn't fire, it was severe winds, a storm surge, and clapboard (again) homes broken up and floating offshore.
That's four towns. If my own dear Bonavista, NL, is flattened by a caving iceberg, it'll be five. Fire, flood, pandemic, drought. What's next? One supposes famine?
Respect what you have, Canadians. Our climate won't change back. If we ever flee north, what will we find?
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5 hours ago
1 passenger survives after Air India flight bound for London crashes with 242 aboard
The Latest: Boeing Dreamliner crashed 5 minutes after takeoff in India Thursday afternoon. Plane crashed into medical college building in Ahmedabad. Flight was scheduled to arrive at London's Gatwick Airport Thursday evening. Canadian citizen from Mississauga, Ont., was on the flight. Modi, Carney, Anand among officials expressing condolences to affected families. Officials say at least 1 person survived. One passenger survived the crash of an Air India plane bound for London that killed at least 240 people on Thursday in Ahmedabad, one of India's worst airline disasters in decades, officials said. The death toll includes medical students who were in a college hostel when the plane hit the building shortly after takeoff, said Vidhi Chaudhary, a top state police officer in the northwestern city. Most of the bodies have been charred beyond recognition, she said. Indian Home Minister Amit Shah confirmed that a single passenger survived the crash and said he met him at the hospital. A doctor said he had examined the survivor, whom he identified as Vishwashkumar Ramesh. Air India confirmed he's a British National of Indian descent. (new window) He was disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body, Dr. Dhaval Gameti told The Associated Press. But he seems to be out of danger. Another medic said Ramesh told him that immediately after the plane took off, it began descending and suddenly split into two, which is when he was thrown out, followed by a loud explosion. Members of the local community stand outside the family home of Vishwashkumar Ramesh, a British survivor of the London-bound Air India crash near Ahmedabad Airport in India, in Leicester, England, on Thursday. (Phil Noble/Reuters) Photo: (Phil Noble/Reuters) According to the medic, Ramesh said he found himself next to debris and walked to a nearby ambulance that brought him to the hospital. Ramesh, who had his boarding pass with him in the hospital, told local newspaper Hindustan Times (new window) that he saw bodies and parts of the plane strewn around the crash site. When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran, he told the newspaper. Ramesh, 40, was travelling to London with his brother. He was sitting in seat 11A, near the emergency exit, he told the paper. Début du widget Twitter. Passer le widget ? Fin du widget Twitter. Retourner au début du widget ? Flight was bound for London Gatwick Black smoke billowed from the site where the plane crashed and burst into flames near the airport in Ahmedabad, a city of more than five million and the capital of Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state. Firefighters doused the smoking wreckage of the plane, which would have been fully loaded with fuel shortly after takeoff, and surrounding multi-storey buildings with water. Charred bodies lay on the ground. The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us, said Modi. It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it. Prime Minister Mark Carney and Foreign Minister Anita Anand acknowledged the death of one Canadian in separate statements, with both indicating the federal government was in contact with counterparts in India. CBC News has confirmed that a dentist from Mississauga, Ont., was the Canadian citizen. The husband of Nirali Sureshkumar Patel had first confirmed she was on the plane to The Canadian Press. He told the news agency he was in the process of booking travel to India for himself and the couple's one-year-old child. The husband of Nirali Sureshkumar Patel has confirmed she was among the 240 passengers on a London-bound flight that crashed Thursday. Photo: 1st Dreamliner crash Air India's chairman, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, said at the moment our primary focus is on supporting all the affected people and their families. He said on X that the airline had set up an emergency centre and support team for families seeking information about those who were on the flight. Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of all those affected by this devastating event, he said. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the scenes in India devastating and said he was being updated as the situation develops, and my thoughts are with the passengers and their families at this deeply distressing time. King Charles also expressed condolences on behalf of himself and Queen Camilla. The king also paid tribute to the heroic efforts of the emergency services and all those providing help and support at this most heartbreaking and traumatic time. The 787 Dreamliner is a widebody, twin-engined plane. This is the first crash ever of a Boeing 787 aircraft, according to the Aviation Safety Network database. The aircraft was introduced in 2009 and more than 1,000 have been delivered to dozens of airlines, according to the flightradar24 website. American Airlines has the largest Dreamliner fleet, while Air Canada also has dozens in operation. WATCH | Warning: Graphic footage: Début du widget Widget. Passer le widget ? Fin du widget Widget. Retourner au début du widget ? CCTV footage shows Air India plane taking off on runway in Ahmedabad and crashing Footage appears to show Flight AI 171 rising and then quickly losing altitude. The plane, en route to London, crashed into a building in Ahmedabad . Takeoff one of the hardest parts of a flight: expert While takeoffs and landings are the most dangerous phases of a flight, John McDermid, a computer science professor at the University of York, noted that the plane climbed above 200 metres. Pilots can abort takeoff until quite late, McDermid said. So it seems like the problem occurred very suddenly in the final part of the takeoff roll, or shortly after takeoff, and was sufficiently serious to be unmanageable. He also said that jets have many backup systems, such as the ability to climb with only one engine, which also made it an unusual accident. Aviation consultant John M. Cox, the CEO of Safety Operating Systems, told AP from Los Angeles that one of the questions investigators will be asking is whether the Air India plane was properly configured for flight with its slats and flaps. While Cox stressed it was too early to make any conclusions, he said that based on admittedly grainy images of the flight it doesn't look like that the trailing edge flaps are in the position I would have expected them to be. The image shows the airplane with the nose rising and it continuing to sink,'' he said. That says that the airplane is not making enough lift.'' The crash occurs amid reports that the U.S. Justice Department reached a deal recently with Boeing that would allow the airplane giant to avoid criminal prosecution for allegedly misleading American regulators about the 737 Max jetliner before two crashes which killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019. Those Boeing crashes occurred five months apart in Indonesia and in Ethiopia, with 18 Canadian citizens among the dead in the Ethiopian incident. Medic says survivor walked from crash site to ambulance. Photo: Associated Press / Ajit Solanki In an updated statement, Boeing said, We are in contact with Air India regarding Flight 171 and stand ready to support them. Our thoughts are with the passengers, crew, first responders and all affected, the company said. Shares of Boeing Co. were down more than three per cent in early Wall Street trading, CNBC reported. The Federal Aviation Administration said that through the National Transportation Safety Board, the U.S government officials would be able to assist in the investigation should India make such a request. The board helps determine the causes of about 450 international crashes every year. The last major plane crash in India occurred in 2020 when an Air India Express Boeing 737 skidded off a runway in the southern city of Kozhikode, killing 18 people. The Associated Press with files from CBC News
Vancouver Sun
6 hours ago
- Vancouver Sun
Only this man walked away from fiery Air India plane crash: 'I have no idea how I exited the plane'
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British man, sat in Seat 11A in the first economy-class row behind business class, a window seat allowing a terrifying view as the plane he was on sank from the sky shortly after takeoff, crashing into a building and bursting into flames. The crash apparently killed everyone else on board. Ramesh was returning to London from Ahmedabad in western India, Thursday, when the Air India Boeing 787-8 commercial passenger jet crashed. Authorities have recovered 265 bodies with more expected to be found. At first, officials declared there were no survivors, but local video showed an agitated man in a stained white T-shirt walking away from the crash with a slight limp, heading towards an ambulance while smoke billowed overhead. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. He was later identified as Ramesh, and a photograph of him in a hospital bed later in the day shows injuries and blood on the left side of his face — the side that faced the window. Authorities confirmed Ramesh was one of the passengers aboard Air India Flight 171. He showed local media his folded boarding pass which matched the passenger's name, flight, and seat assignment in the plane's manifest. 'Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly,' Ramesh told the Hindustan Times from a hospital bed. 'When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me. Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital,' he said. Officials said he suffered 'impact injuries' to his chest, face and feet. He was in a general ward bed rather than a specialized trauma unit, suggesting his injuries were relatively minor. While the seemingly miraculous survival is a wonder, as well as one glimmer of good news amid an enormous tragedy, for Ramesh it remained a day of loss and pain. He had been returning to Britain from visiting family with his older brother, Ajay Kumar Ramesh. His brother was sitting in a different row from him. Ajay Valgi, Ramesh's cousin in England, told the BBC that Ramesh phoned his family and told them he was 'fine' but that he didn't know where his brother was. Another brother, Nayan Kumar Ramesh, relayed a brief phone call with Ramesh: 'He said, 'I have no idea how I exited the plane.'' There were 169 Indian citizens, 53 British citizens, seven Portuguese and one Canadian as passengers on the flight destined for London's Gatwick airport, Air India said. Eleven children were on board. The Canadian has been identified as Nirali Sureshkumar Patel, a dentist from Mississauga, Ont. Officials said there were 12 crew members on board as well as the 230 passengers. Many others on the ground were killed and injured. Police said the jet smashed into a hostel that was used by local doctors. Ahmedabad's police commissioner, G.S. Malik, told ANI News: 'The police found one survivor in seat 11A. He has been in the hospital and is under treatment…. The death toll may increase as the flight crashed in a residential area.' Ramesh was born in India but has lived in England for many years. He lives in Leicester, where he has a wife and child and an extended family, British media reported. How he alone survived is not known. Seat 11A is on the left side of the plane, beside an emergency exit and behind a kitchen galley that separates the business-class cabin from the cheaper seats further into the plane. It is not considered a particularly desirable seat. It is close to the kitchen, which can be noisy, and it has no floor space for bags during takeoff and landing, according to While there is more legroom because it is an exit row, that comes at a cost: the tray table is nested in the armrest, making the armrest immoveable and the seat narrower. Ramesh's boarding pass says his flight was scheduled for departure at 1:10 p.m., on Thursday, an hour after his boarding call. It was 29 minutes late when it took off. It was less than a minute after taking off that the air traffic controllers received a Mayday call from the plane, an international emergency distress signal, as it sank back to the ground, bursting into flames and sending up clouds of dark smoke that were clearly visible from the airport. The plane is seen in videos sinking through the air, looking more like a planned landing than an erratic crash, but rather than finding a runway, it smashed through a building on the outskirts of the airport. The front of the plane penetrated deep into the building, with only its tail sticking out. Ramesh's brother is still unaccounted for. The cause of the crash is still under investigation. While authorities want to know what caused the plane to descend, there will also be great interest in how one man managed to walk away from the carnage. • Email: ahumphreys@ | Twitter: AD_Humphreys Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
Calgary Herald
6 hours ago
- Calgary Herald
Only this man walked away from fiery Air India plane crash: 'I have no idea how I exited the plane'
Article content Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British man, sat in Seat 11A in the first economy-class row behind business class, a window seat allowing a terrifying view as the plane he was on sank from the sky shortly after takeoff, crashing into a building and bursting into flames. Article content The crash apparently killed everyone else on board. Article content Ramesh was returning to London from Ahmedabad in western India, Thursday, when the Air India Boeing 787-8 commercial passenger jet crashed. Authorities have recovered 265 bodies with more expected to be found. Article content Article content At first, officials declared there were no survivors, but local video showed an agitated man in a stained white T-shirt walking away from the crash with a slight limp, heading towards an ambulance while smoke billowed overhead. Article content Article content He was later identified as Ramesh, and a photograph of him in a hospital bed later in the day shows injuries and blood on the left side of his face — the side that faced the window. Article content Authorities confirmed Ramesh was one of the passengers aboard Air India Flight 171. He showed local media his folded boarding pass which matched the passenger's name, flight, and seat assignment in the plane's manifest. Article content 'Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly,' Ramesh told the Hindustan Times from a hospital bed. Article content 'When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me. Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital,' he said. Article content Article content Officials said he suffered 'impact injuries' to his chest, face and feet. He was in a general ward bed rather than a specialized trauma unit, suggesting his injuries were relatively minor. Article content Article content While the seemingly miraculous survival is a wonder, as well as one glimmer of good news amid an enormous tragedy, for Ramesh it remained a day of loss and pain. He had been returning to Britain from visiting family with his older brother, Ajay Kumar Ramesh. Article content His brother was sitting in a different row from him. Article content Ajay Valgi, Ramesh's cousin in England, told the BBC that Ramesh phoned his family and told them he was 'fine' but that he didn't know where his brother was. Article content Another brother, Nayan Kumar Ramesh, relayed a brief phone call with Ramesh: 'He said, 'I have no idea how I exited the plane.'' Article content There were 169 Indian citizens, 53 British citizens, seven Portuguese and one Canadian as passengers on the flight destined for London's Gatwick airport, Air India said. Eleven children were on board. The Canadian has been identified as Nirali Sureshkumar Patel, a dentist from Mississauga, Ont.
