“Fire season is starting earlier, lasting longer and much more intense. It’s become a real issue over the last four or five years,” MacKenzie told CBC Radio’s The Signal.

“Climate change is very real in the fire service, and the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, of which I’ve been involved with over the years, we’ve been letting governments know that climate change is real.”

MacKenzie said fires are starting to become synonymous with summer in Canada.

Newfoundland and Labrador has averaged fewer than 100 wildfires per season in the previous five years, but this year there have been 216 so far, according to the province’s wildfire dashboard.

“Climate change doesn’t start fires, but what it does is it really exacerbates conditions. It really sets the stage for more extreme fire behaviour that just lets these fires burn out of control,” Trudeau said.