22-06-2025
Inside the Race to Save a Family Farm From Canada's Wildfires
Smoke was darkening the skies, and flames from an out-of-control wildfire ripping through this remote stretch of western Canada were creeping ominously close to the farm that has been in Jake van Angeren's family for 70 years.
Official evacuation alerts had sounded in Goodlow, an agricultural community near Alberta in northeastern British Columbia, setting off a chain reaction among families who had packed their bags ready to be ordered to leave as wildfires this month swallowed up swaths of land.
But not Mr. van Angeren. Instead, he and his neighbors filled up water tanks, unraveled hoses, cleared strips of land of combustible plants to create a firebreak and then stepped toward the flames.
They saved the van Angeren farm.
Canada's wildfire season, which generally stretches from April to October, is in full swing in the western part of the country, consuming nearly nine million acres so far across four provinces and forcing thousands of people to make difficult choices, sometimes at a moment's notice when flames approach.
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