Canadian wildfires force tens of thousands to evacuate [Video]

Roughly 17,000 residents in the Canadian province of Manitoba have been evacuated because of nearly two dozen active wildfires, officials said Saturday.

More than 5,000 of those are from Flin Flon, where there is no rain in the immediate forecast. There have been no structure fires in the city located nearly 400 miles northwest of the provincial capital of Winnipeg as of Saturday morning, but officials worry that a change in wind direction could bring the fire into town.

Manitoba declared a state of emergency on Wednesday as the fires burning from the northwest to the southeast forced evacuations in several communities in the province directly north of the U.S. states of Minnesota and North Dakota. Smoke from the fires is being pushed south into some parts of the U.S., worsening air quality.

Thousands have also been affected by wildfires in Saskatchewan and Alberta, with 1,300 people in the community of Swan Hills northwest of Edmonton forced …