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Wildfire season is currently in full swing, and Canada is grappling with a wave of blazes that have swept across Ontario in recent days. Many people have captured some jaw-dropping footage of the scenes that have unfolded, including one man aboard a freight train that was forced to stop in the middle of a forest engulfed by flames.
Smokey Bear led multiple generations of people to believe that only you can prevent forest fires, but that’s not entirely accurate. Humans are responsible for sparking around 85% of the wildfires that unfold in the United States each year, but they also tend to be inevitable to some degree in areas where dry conditions create a tinder box that a single bolt of lightning can trigger.
In Canada, on the other hand, lightning accounts for 46% of wildfires that break out there on an annual basis, and the blazes that can be traced back to that source are responsible for more than 80% of the area that ends up being burned.
Firefighters in the Great White North tend to have their hands full during the warmest months of the year, and 2026 is no exception. Hundreds of distinct fires were burning in Ontario on Wednesday while impacting people across the province (and well beyond), including some railway workers who were safely rescued after being thrust into a bit of a nightmare.
A guy aboard a train that drove through the middle of a wildfire in Ontario captured some harrowing footage
Thousands of people have been displaced by the wildfires in Ontario, and the smoke there has turned the skies from Thunder Bay to Toronto various shades of orange as certain parts of the United States have been treated to similar hues (and declines in the level of air quality).
Massive Wildfires Ravage Northern Ontario pic.twitter.com/3glnESK4h1
— TaraBull (@TaraBull) July 15, 2026
An aerial view of the large wildfires burning in Ontario Canada this afternoon.
📹: Bush Piloting pic.twitter.com/tugDRXmGAe
— StormHQ ☈ (@StormHQwx) July 15, 2026
WATCH: A blanket of wildfire smoke creates eerie skies over Ontario pic.twitter.com/Qix3Wqo9Ez
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) July 15, 2026
New blazes have the potential to start almost out of nowhere and spread at an incredibly swift pace, which means there’s only so much people can do to be prepared for what unfolds if one of them breaks out in their vicinity.
That was the case with a couple of guys who were aboard a train that was making its way through the remote town of Armstrong on Monday before it was forced to stop to accommodate another one coming down the tracks. However, the timing was less than ideal, as one of them accurately relayed the fact that they were “encased in flames” to the other train while filming the swirling blaze.
This is near Armstrong, Ontario.
When will the Canadian National Railway Company make a statement about this incident? pic.twitter.com/6bKJYugeR0
— Sol Mamakwa (@solmamakwa) July 14, 2026
According to the CBC, Canadian National Railway confirmed the men in the video were able to make it through the ordeal unscathed, adding “employees in the area and residents of the Town of Armstrong were evacuated Monday night” for their safety.
That seems like the textbook definition of “Better Late Than Never,” but at least they were able to make it out alive.