Ranchers Fear For Livestock As Canada Wildfires Rage

By Anne-Sophie THILL

Rancher BJ Fuchs hasn't been able to let his guard down as wildfires advanced in Canada's Alberta province, so far sparing his farm in Shining Bank but scorching forests and grasslands all around it.

Paddocks that usually hold up to 1,000 cows sit empty and a haze of smoke has reduced visibility to less than five meters (16 feet).

Fuchs and his son managed to evacuate his herd before the wildfires jumped a nearby river and arrived at his doorstep. Smoke now billows from piles of burnt trees on his wooded lot west of the provincial capital Edmonton.

The blaze that threatened his farm was powerful, he told AFP. "It's pretty scary stuff when fire's that close to your home."

"There're still hot spots and, you know, I don't think we're out of danger yet," he said, sporting a days-old beard and a cowboy hat. "So I don't think we can let our guard down."

Alberta is the largest cattle producing region in Canada, with almost five million head of cattle, according to government data.

Dotted with open ranges and rolling plains in the shadow of the majestic Rocky Mountains, it has been used as a backdrop for Westerns such as Oscar winners Unforgiven and Brokeback Mountain.

Over the past week, wildfires burnt more than 400,000 hectares (1,550 square miles), and forced almost 30,000 people out of their homes. Some 70 fires were still raging on Friday, including 20 listed as out of control.