#i'm already including one for lahaina/maui in my chapter notes for next chapter

[quaranmine]

Can definitely confirm as a Canadian that this has been a scary summer for wildfires. I live in southern Ontario, and could barely go outside for a week because the smoke coming in on the wind was so bad, I can’t imagine how scary it is for people living in the affected areas. My cousin lives in BC and I’ve been worried about him.

I'm really sorry you have to deal with that. Whenever I open any wildfire maps or smoke maps, Canada is just covered by it. Depending on the scale the map is zoomed at, it looks like the entire province of BC is covered. It looks so scary. Do y'all typically get fires that bad in Ontario? I know that BC and Alberta have more of the typical fire-supported ecosystems (mountains, conifer forests, etc), although that still doesn't mean the amount/intensity of the fires are normal. I haven't put a lot of research into wildfire in Canada, since I was mostly focusing on the area where my story was set, but I was initially quite surprised at how bad it was in the eastern areas of the country too. I hope your cousin is safe.

This summer has been pretty rough for my family, with my Papa's health taking a steep decline, him being hospitalized and placed on hospice, and then dying last month. (I really wish I could say it was peaceful but it was awful to witness.) My aunt was supposed to go on a camping trip with some friends up in Canada, but had to cancel it because of everything happening here. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise I guess--a really weird thing to call a "blessing" I know-- because her friends who went to Canada had to emergecy evacuate the campground and flee because the wildfires were closing in. They left all their belongings. Fortunately, the fire was stopped right before it reached the campground, but it was scary. I'm glad my aunt was not there and was safely down here. These people were fortunate because they're just tourists and can go home--so many people who actually live in Canada right now are in such a scary situation. Many people are not so fortunate, either by losing their life or their homes or their livelihoods.