A territory the size of nine times the island of Montreal was on fire in Nunavik on Saturday morning, while another fire gave rise to a smoke warning the day before in a village in Ungava Bay.

The fire would have started last Sunday in northern Quebec, according to the spokesperson for the Society for the Protection of Forests against Fire (SOPFEU) Mélanie Morin.

No intervention is planned to put out the blaze, monitored only by satellite data. "It does not threaten human life or homes," said Ms. Morin.

This type of fire would not be abnormal for the season, the snow having melted in recent weeks. Dry soil creates fertile ground for fires.

The second, much smaller fire is just 113 hectares, but prompted a smoke warning on Friday given its proximity to Kangiqsualujjuaq, a village of less than 1,000 people in Ungava Bay.

For the moment, SOPFEU is not particularly worried about this summer, in particular because of the rains at the beginning of the month which "rebalanced the statistics", mentioned Ms. Morin.

The SOPFEU season had started with great fanfare with multiple brush fires in southern Quebec, but these were rather limited. To date, 258 fires have ravaged 208 hectares in the south of the province, well below the 10-year average of 4,910 hectares ravaged by 222 fires as of June 11.