Canada wildfires: Global help arrives as Quebec fights ‘historic’ fires

The wildfires that have blanketed a large area of eastern North America with smoke seemingly spread overnight in early June in the Canadian province of Quebec, thanks to dry and hot weather and several strikes of lightning.

Wildfires began to spread quickly early this month, jumping from 36 to over 100 after a 1 June thunderstorm.

After a seemingly ordinary start to the fire season, "within three days, everything went very bad", said Philippe Bergeron with Quebec's firefighting agency.

The growing flames have drained local firefighting resources.

Global firefighters are...