An "unprecedented" start to the wildfire season in Canada has led to serious wildfires spreading destruction and forcing evacuations across seven provinces and one territory, Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair said Thursday.

Blair told reporters that over the month of May, roughly 2.7 million hectares of forest — an area equal to about five million football fields — went up in flames in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Northwest Territori…