You’ve seen it and you’ve smelled it all summer long: smoke from the wildfires in Canada. Over the past three months, more than 5,000 wildfires have burned across Canada, scorching more than 27 million acres. Some Minnesotans have been on the front line of fighting the flames.

Our state has been answering the call for help thanks to something called the Great Lakes Forest Fire Compact. It’s a partnership where Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Manitoba and Ontario have all agreed to help each other out with firefighting. So far three different groups of Minnesota firefighters have been sent to Manitoba. Lori Barrow is a Forester with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and joined Minnesota Now after spending 18 days working to fight wildfires.