Category Archives: Forest Fires

People who had to leave their homes due to fires burning across northern and western regions of Quebec will not be able to return to their communities until next week, says Premier François Legault. Legault, speaking at a news conference Wednesday morning in Quebec City, said dry weather and strong winds are creating dangerous conditions and heavy smoke in areas that have been evacuated so far. …Legault also said his government is looking at helping people out with expenses related to evacuations. …Armed forces and out-of-province firefighters have been on the ground in Quebec to help tame the wildfires, but local fire authorities have said they only have the capacity to fight about 40 fires at a time for now. So far, 460,000 hectares of land burned — already surpassing the 1991 total of about 350,000 hectares, said Forestry Minister Maïté Blanchette Vézina. “We have never seen these many hectares [burn],” she said. 

As forest-fire smoke from Northern Ontario and Quebec blows south and causes breathing problems, Premier Doug Ford is urging people to be careful with open flames — raising questions as to why a province-wide fire ban has not been declared. “I’m asking every Ontarian, please do not light any campfires,” Ford said Wednesday as he faced questions in the legislature about his government’s commitment to fighting climate change and its impact on an extraordinary wildfire season across Canada from unusually hot, dry conditions. “We are in for, probably, the most severe fire season our province has ever experienced and people are quite rightly worried for their immediate future and whether this is the new reality,” NDP Leader Marit Stiles told the legislature’s daily question period.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is blaming campfires and lightning strikes for the ongoing wildfires across Northern Ontario and is promising to provide as much funding as necessary to help firefighters get the blazes under control. A report by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC), an agency that coordinates Canada’s interprovincial fire responses, said 25 fires were out of control in the province on Monday with more than 20,000 hectares on fire.

A forest fire that broke out Sunday on the shores of Centennial Lake in eastern Ontario — forcing the evacuation of households in the Township of Greater Madawaska — is now contained, officials say.  Crews are making “excellent progress” on Tuesday, according to a fire adviser for Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.  “Crews are holding the fire within the burnt area,” said the township early Tuesday afternoon. “Fire suppression efforts are focused on hot spots and preventative measures.”  As of Tuesday afternoon, the fire has not grown in size, but is not yet declared as “being held,” said the ministry.   The ministry also said water bombers are available but are not currently required, as crews on the ground continue to battle the fire, with winds on the scene reaching up to 40 km/h. 

Media were invited Tuesday to view the wreckage left behind by a wildfire that swept through the Halifax-area communities of Tantallon and Hammonds Plains over the last week. The fire, which broke out on May 28, destroyed about 200 buildings, including 151 homes, and forced the evacuation of more than 16,400 people. Many evacuees have since been able to return home, but about 4,000 remain displaced. The fire is now under control and 100 per cent contained, and is not expected to spread further. As of Tuesday, it still measured around 950 hectares. During a grim tour through the most impacted area Tuesday, piles of charred rubble could be seen where houses once stood, with burned out cars parked in driveways. …In addition to the physical devastation left behind by the wildfire, the incident has also impacted those called to respond to it.

On a day when smoke from forest fires in Ontario and Quebec hung in the air of Toronto, the province is reassuring people that its crews are prepared even as one agency rates Ontario’s status as “assistance required.” A report by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC), an agency which coordinates Canada’s interprovincial fire responses, said 25 fires were out of control in the province on Monday. More than 20,000 hectares were on fire. The CIFFC has rated Ontario’s preparedness on Monday as very high danger, with a very high fire load. It described the province’s resources levels as “assistance required” and its ability to respond to resource requests for staff from the central agency as “poor.” Speaking to reporters at Queen’s Park, natural resources and forestry minister Graydon Smith said his government was “taking action to make sure people in communities are safe.”

As firefighters rushed to protect communities under threat, more than 160 forest fires continued to burn in Quebec, the vast majority of them out of control, coating much of the province in thick smoke and haze. The fires prompted air quality warnings across Quebec on Monday morning… In Sept-Îles, the North Shore town whose outskirts are threatened by fire, Environment Canada issued a severe special air quality statement, urging residents to wear respirators if they had to venture outside and to use air filters to recirculate and clean indoor air. The special air quality statement extended over much of the province, stretching from the north shore to James Bay and including part of the Outaouais. …Yan Boulanger, a research scientist with Natural Resources Canada said that the ground covered by the fires in Quebec’s commercial forests in the past four days is equal to what was covered in the past 10 years combined.

Premier François Legault

QUEBEC — With more than 10,000 people forced to leave their homes as dozens of forest fires burn across Quebec, Premier François Legault warned Monday that the situation will remain unpredictable for the entire summer. …Legault said Quebec has the resources for now to manage around 30 of the fires, with the priority on saving lives, cities and critical Hydro-Québec infrastructure. Little can be done for now to save the massive resources of wood that risk burning, he said. With other provinces saddled with their own fires and unable to spare firefighters, Quebec and Canada have turned to the world, Legault said. “We need all the help possible,” Legault said. …Mike Norton, director general of the Northern Forestry Centre at the Department of Natural Resources, says having this many fires from coast to coast at this time of year is not normal. And the outlook for the rest of the season remains dire.

Officials are asking people living around Centennial Lake to evacuate their homes as a forest fire burns in the area west of Calabogie, Ont. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry says the fire in the Centennial Lake area was reported just after 5:30 p.m. Sunday. The Township of Greater Madawaska said late Sunday night that the fire located on Centennial Lake had “expanded to the shore.” …A 24-hour evacuation notice was issued to surrounding areas of seasonal residences. On Monday afternoon, that was extended another 48 hours to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. …There is no word on what sparked the fire. …Water bombers and firefighters have been working to get the fire under control. …Centennial Lake is located 157 km west of downtown Ottawa.

MONTREAL — Another northern Quebec town was evacuated due to an out of control wildfire on Saturday as the federal government confirmed that Canadian Forces personnel would be deployed to help combat forest fires in the province.  About 2,000 residents of Lebel-sur-Quévillon, about 620 kilometres northwest of Montreal, were the latest to receive a mandatory evacuation notice on Friday evening due to forest fires nearby.  …In the North Shore community of Sept-Îles, where a state of emergency was declared Friday morning, an evacuation order for residents of certain sectors of town remained in place. It was the same story in the nearby Innu community of Mani-Utenam, where 1,500 residents belonging to the Uashat Mak Mani-utenam First Nation have been relocated.  …Quebec forest fire prevention organization SOPFEU reports there are 134 active fires in the province, including about 20 that are priorities because they threaten residences or infrastructure.

Additional coverage in Global News, by Christopher Reynolds and Coralie Laplante (Canadian Press): Wildfire tally tops 150 as thousands more evacuate northwestern Quebec

Five new forest fires were reported in the Northeast Region by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry Saturday night. The nearest one to Timmins was Cochrane 8, which was located about 30 kilometres east of Cochrane, where, according to the MNRF, rural route 652 turns north. Most of the larger fires closest to Timmins are in the Iroquois Falls and Cochrane area. “Cochrane 3, 6, and 7 fires (80, 1,000, and 600 hectares respectively) remain not yet under control,” the ministry stated Saturday night. “Fire Ranger crews continue with fire suppression efforts.” …The ministry was also a couple of fires in the Chapleau area, the largest being Chapleau 3, at 300 hectares, reported to be not under control. …Closer to home, the 8.5-hectare Timmins 6 fire on Malette Lumber Road was reported by the MNRF to be under control. That fire was first reported on May 31.

Quebec’s fire authority says it’s unable to bring all 153 fires burning in the province under control. It says it can only attack between 20 to 30 fires at a time until reinforcement arrives. “We took charge of 35 fires today, compared to 21 yesterday. We chose specific fires to protect our critical infrastructures, but above all to protect our population,” said Public Security Minister François Bonnardel at a news conference Sunday. “All our resources are concentrated on these fires.”  Armed forces and firefighters from outside the province started arriving Saturday to help local firefighters. About 100 soldiers are on the ground and 550 more firefighters are on the way. …Quebec’s Forestry Ministry banned access to more forests and closed roads as of 8 a.m. Sunday as fires continue to burn across the province.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry’s Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services is dealing with several fires across northwestern Ontario. As of late Sunday, eleven of the fires were listed as not under control. Six were being held, with one being observed. That fire is within Opasquia Provincial Park and has scorched over 12,742 hectares. Because of its remoteness, the fire is not causing any harm to people or property. Ten new fires were reported Sunday. A fire in Wabakimi Provincial Park, 40 kilometres northwest of Armstrong, covers 6.5 hectares. It is listed as not under control. Two small fires were spotted near the Nungesser River, about 45 kilometres north of Red Lake. One fire has since been declared out. Similar-sized fires near Klersy Lake, 70 kilometres southwest of Geraldton, and near Costello Lake, 100 kilometres east of Red Lake, are being held.

Residents of Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, continue to deal with growing forest fires in the southwestern region of the province that have displaced thousands of people. The main fire near Barrington Lake — the largest in the province’s recorded history — has grown to more than 20,000 hectares in size, while a smaller fire to the northeast near Lake Road is at about 120 hectares. In a news update on Thursday, RCMP Cpl. Chris Marshall said so far, about 3,200 homes have been evacuated, displacing 6,700 people — about 50 per cent of Shelburne County’s population. …Premier Tim Houston, in a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, made a list of requests for help including financial aid for farmers. …Greg Morrow, provincial agriculture minister, said some of that aid would help cover costs to restart farms in evacuated areas.

Wildfires are common in Canada’s western provinces, but this year the eastern province of Nova Scotia is reeling from its worst-ever wildfire season… The Atlantic province has had nearly 200 wildfires so far this year that have burned more than 19,000 hectares and displaced more than 25,000 people. In 2022, there were just 152 fires that burned 3,390 hectares. …Nova Scotia’s climate is heavily influenced by the North Atlantic Ocean, which brings higher humidity and more moderate temperatures than many other parts of the country. Fires tend to be much smaller than those in the west. …Atlantic Canada received low snowfall this winter, followed by an exceptionally dry spring. …Ellen Whitman, with the Canadian Forest Service, said there is speculation that trees felled during Hurricane Fiona in 2022, or killed by an infestation of forest pests may be providing more fuel than usual for wildfires, but that theory requires further investigation.

Quebec’s forest fire prevention agency said Thursday that two wildfires were burning out of control in the province, including one in northern Quebec that has led to the evacuation of about 500 homes. A forest fire remained out of control in Chapais, a community of just over 1,500 in northern Quebec. On Wednesday evening, the community located west of Chibougamau announced that residents in the southern part of the town had to evacuate. “That fire, just under 1,400 hectares, was declared yesterday, (and) because of conditions on the ground, weather conditions, it quickly became out of control,” said Melanie Morin, a spokeswoman for the prevention agency, known as SOPFEU. “Water bombers are back on the scene today. As well, we have heavy machinery that are working to create a fireguard between the fire and the town of Chapais.”

Additional coverage (en français) in Le Quotidien, by Mariane Guay: Un lien possible entre les trois feux à Chapais

Quebec’s power utility scrambled to get the power back on when nearly a quarter of a million customers lost electricity Thursday afternoon due to forest fires. Hydro-Québec spokesperson Maxence Huard-Lefebvre said the power outages were related to heat and smoke from the fires in the North Shore that triggered protection mechanisms in two transmission lines. On Twitter, the Crown corporation said the power would be restored gradually, and within a few hours, more than 200,000 customers had electricity. At its peak, 240,000 customers were without power, with Montreal one of the hardest hit regions with 125 outages affecting 93,500 customers. But by 5 p.m., the number of customers across the province affected had dropped by more than 60,000. About 40 minutes after that, only 40,000 were without power. …Meanwhile, a forest fire near Chapais, Que., has forced the evacuation of about 500 homes, almost half the community.

Officials in Nova Scotia are making an urgent appeal for emergency help in what’s expected to be a long battle to fight wildfires in the Halifax area, where devastating losses have already been suffered. “Nova Scotia needs help right now,” Premier Tim Houston said yesterday as he pleaded for federal help alongside Halifax Mayor Mike Savage. The federal government has already mobilized firefighters, helicopters and trucks, but Minister of Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair said more will be provided as soon as possible. Unco-operative weather has forced firefighters into a difficult battle to control wildfires threatening homes in suburban Tantallon, while a separate fire covering as much as 200 square kilometres in the southwestern part of the province has forced 2,000 to evacuate. Meanwhile, in Northern Alberta, about 500 residents of remote hamlet Fort Chipewyan had to be airlifted out of the area as an 86-square-kilometre wildfire burned nearby.

Roofers working at a home on Tattingstone Court on Sunday believe they witnessed the start of the Tantallon wildfire that damaged hundreds of buildings and forced thousands of people to evacuate from the area. Ben Clattenburg was up on a roof when he noticed a small fire behind a home on nearby Juneberry Lane. “It just looked like a bonfire – like somebody burning something,” Clattenburg said Tuesday. “We were thinking it was a pretty hot and dry day to be burning something in your backyard.” It was too hot to be having a campfire at the time, Clattenburg said. “It was 30 C out. It was three o’clock in the afternoon. Why would anybody be sitting around a fire?” Then, all of a sudden, the fire was in two spots, said the 27-year-old.

For much of May 2023, wildland fires raged in western Canada. In the last few days of the month, blazes flared up thousands of miles to the east as well, in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia. The fires, unusually large for Nova Scotia, forced the evacuation of thousands of people. Smoke billowed from a fire near the town of Shelburne on May 29, when an astronaut on the International Space Station took this photograph. By the morning of May 31, after four days of burning, the fire had scorched 17,000 hectares (66 square miles) near the southern tip of Nova Scotia. It became the largest forest fire in the province’s history. On May 29, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured a wider view of the blaze in Shelburne County (below). The fire grew rapidly from 6,000 hectares on that day to 17,000 hectares two days later, due to dry and windy conditions.