Canadian province of Quebec sees progress in wildfire battle
BBC By Nadine Yousif
in Saguenay, Quebec
Quebec has made progress in its battle to fight wildfires that have contributed to the smoke that blanketed large parts of North America this week.
"We're really happy with the last 48 hours," said Philippe Bergeron, with Quebec's firefighting agency, on Friday.
Some evacuees in the province are hopeful they can soon return home.
Canada is currently battling more than 400 wildfires burning across the country.
Mr Bergeron said that firefighters have been successful in putting out a few fires, as well as containing larger ones in the province that have not grown as much in the last few days.
On Friday, Quebec said it had allocated C$1,500 ($1,120) for every household that had been forced to evacuate in the province because of the fires.
But despite improvements in that province, on the west coast, officials in British Columbia (BC) are warning of a "wild" fire season ahead.
On Thursday, residents of the town of Tumbler Ridge, in north-eastern BC, were ordered to evacuated due to a rapidly growing fire nearby.
