With hot temperatures, strong winds and threats of lightning throughout the previous week, Alberta Wildfire warned weather conditions could cause fires to be very active and likely grow. The agency also issued a fire ban for northern and central parts of the province’s Fire Protection Area,

Firefighters battling a blaze in a remote northern Alberta community were temporarily trapped Thursday as raging wildfires closed in on communities across the province, forcing thousands to flee.

A wildfire in northeastern B.C. has caused residents to flee their homes, while Saskatchewan and Manitoba have declared a provincial state of emergency. It’s not yet summer, but out-of-control wildfires are raging across Western Canada, fuelled by drought, warmer temperatures and lack of rainfall.

Wildfires in western and central Canada have forced more than 26,000 people to evacuate, including communities in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, according to officials and media reports. The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre reports that 187 fires were burning across Canada as of Sunday, with 97 categorized as “out of control.”

Special air quality statements and warnings have blanketed central and northern Alberta as smoke from several wildfires moves across the province.

Canada, the world’s fourth-largest crude producer, has long seen its energy output threatened by wildfires that rage through the dense forests of northern Alberta in spring and summer. In 2016, a blaze shut down the massive oilsands mines just north of Fort McMurray, taking more than one million barrels of daily production offline.

More than 25,000 residents in three provinces have been evacuated as dozens of wildfires remained active Sunday and diminished air quality in parts of Canada and the U.S. Most of the evacuated residents were from Manitoba,

More Yellowhead County residents had to leave their homes Friday, after the county issued a new wildfire evacuation order for two communities and expanded an existing order.