Department of Resources and Renewable Energy Firefighter Kalen MacMullin in Sydney, Nova Scotia, works with the fire in Shelburne County, NS on Thursday. Rain and rain forecasts for the weekend give fire officials hope.
Nova Scotia Media/Canadian Press via AP
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Nova Scotia Media/Canadian Press via AP
Department of Resources and Renewable Energy Firefighter Kalen MacMullin in Sydney, Nova Scotia, works with the fire in Shelburne County, NS on Thursday. Rain and rain forecasts for the weekend give fire officials hope.
Nova Scotia Media/Canadian Press via AP
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — Officials in Canada’s Atlantic Coast province of Nova Scotia said Saturday a wildfire has forced thousands of residents to flee their homes. in this week now largely contained because of rain.
David Steeves, a forest resources technician with Nova Scotia’s Department of Natural Resources and Renewable Energy, said the fire in the Halifax area was about 85 percent contained, covering an area of 9.5 square kilometers (approx. 4 square miles) and is unlikely to spread due to a combination of firefighting efforts and the long-awaited rain.
The news was also good across the province, where Premier Tim Houston said the total number of active wildfires had dropped from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“If you step outside, you see something beautiful: rain, and hopefully a lot,” he said at an afternoon news conference.
Houston said the only fire out of control was a blaze in Shelburne County in the southwestern corner of the province that remained “scary”.
The blaze that broke out on Sunday in the Halifax area has spread through several small areas, destroying about 200 structures – including 151 homes – and forcing more than 16,000 people to evacuate.
Meanwhile, in the province’s wildfire heartland in Shubenacadie, north of Halifax, about 20 Canadian Armed Forces soldiers stood in the pouring rain outside a light armored vehicle.
Lieutenant Colonel Michael Blanchette said the initial team from Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick had arrived on a “fact-finding mission” to see what military support was needed in the effort to put out the fires. .
Meanwhile, in Shelburne County, 6,700 people – about half the city’s population – remained out of their homes as the fire that forced them to evacuate continued to burn out of control.
The Lake Barrington wildfire, which began Saturday, spread to 230 square kilometers (93 square miles) — the largest recorded wildfire in the province’s history. It has consumed at least 50 houses and cottages.
Dave Rockwood, a spokesman for the Department of Natural Resources, said there was “cautious optimism” that there would be no further development and that firefighters could use more direct tactics to contain it. He added that two other fires deemed out of control on Saturday morning were classified as “organized” later in the day.
Houston has confirmed that schools in Shelburne County will be closed Monday and Tuesday.
