Our smoky new reality

For many of us here in Kawartha Lakes, 2025 was the summer that Canada’s wildfire crisis hit close to home. Fires in the north end of the city closed roads and darkened skies with smoke, while aerial photos revealed unsettling expanses of blackened land.

As Mayor Doug Elmslie noted, the combination of dead debris from trees ravaged by the March ice storm and a drought worse than anything many of us can remember made for ideal conditions for fires to start, catch and spread with terrifying speed. Local fire crews were pushed to their limit and beyond, and we are grateful for their dedication.

Thank you, too, to the businesses and community groups that provided food and other necessities as the firefighters battled the blazes on residents’ behalf. And for those who complained about the inconveniences resulting from the fires, shame on you.

August made us realize that wildfires are no longer limited to dry Western Canada. Not only were they raging here on our doorstep, they were also causing destruction in historically damp areas of Atlantic Canada.

No more. The changing climate means no region in our vast country should assume it is safe from the flames. Erratic snowfall means less moisture in the soil, leading to drier weather that turns forests and fields into so much tinder.

What’s also clear is that the way we experience summer is also changing. To keep each other and our beautiful Kawartha Lakes safe, we can’t take for granted the things we’ve been able to do in the past.

Bans on bonfires, brush burning, fireworks and even barbecues may become longer and more frequent. During the drought, responsible folks refrained from operating machinery or anything else that might cause a deadly spark, something we’re all going to have to take into consideration in future.

Likewise, it’s time to start looking at our homes and outbuildings to minimize burn risks, now a commonplace practice in the B.C. interior and other places that have experienced multiple wildfires in recent years. As a list circulating online noted, with fire becoming an ever more real possibility, excuses like “We’ve done this for years with no problem!” or “I’m careful,” were never acceptable, and even less so now.

Many of us have had to think seriously for the first time ever about a safety plan in the event of a fire threatening our homes — what we would grab, where we would go. We can hope we never need to act on it, but we can’t pretend this summer’s conditions won’t happen again.