Canadian wildfires force 17,000 to evacuate, smoke expected to hit the U.S. this weekend Boston 25 News [Video]

Massive uncontained wildfires that are burning out of control across western and central Canada, forcing tens of thousands of residents to evacuate, are expected to move south toward the U.S. and reduce air quality across multiple central and eastern states on Friday and Saturday.

The fires have pushed the leaders of Canada’s Manitoba and Saskatchewan provinces to declare states of emergency, while other provinces, including Alberta and Ontario, are facing an “extreme” risk of wildfires on Friday — the highest level on Environment Canada’s risk scale.

“The conditions that our northern residents, communities and wildland firefighters are facing today are as severe or quite likely unlike anything we have faced in quite some time, if not ever,” Scott Moe, the premier of Saskatchewan, said at a press conference Thursday.

Here’s what we know.