Out-of-control fires have Newfoundland towns on edge as crisis moves into 3rd week

Two massive forest fires in central Newfoundlandnearthe Bay d'EspoirHighway and Paradise Lake continue to burn out of control Monday, aftergrowing significantly over the weekend, and communities in the region continue to stay alert for possible evacuation.

A state of emergency was declared in theGrand Falls-Windsor, Bishop's Falls and Connaigre Peninsula areas on Saturday night, and extended to the Botwood area on Sunday.Premier Andrew Furey asked residents there to prepare for a possible evacuation.

The Bay d'EspoirHighway, which connects the Connaigre Peninsula on Newfoundland's south coast to the rest of the island, isstill closed and willremain that wayuntil further notice.

"We're doing our very best to try and get that Bay d'Espoir Highway open again, but the reality is the fire's on both sides of the road, the wind's not helping down there, and the size of the fire is increased," said provincial forest fire duty officer Jeff Motty.

According to remote sensing technology, Motty said the Paradise Lake fire is estimated to be 6,614 hectares, while the Bay d'Espoir fire is about 5,273 hectares.

While officials had thought thefires would merge into one over the weekend, Motty saidthat didn't happen, and based on the weather forecast, they're not predicting it will happen Monday either.

As of Monday afternoon, Motty said, there is still open flame and heavy smokecoming from the fires, which has made firefighting challenging.

"Even with water bombers it was too much smoke to safely through work those fires there yesterday," said Motty.

Motty saidthere is some positive news as temperatures at the siteare expected to be lower Monday, at about 23 C, and winds are expected to be weaker and change direction, blowing from the northwest, on Monday afternoon.

Motty said the more favourable weather conditions are expected to blow smoke away from Grand Falls-Windsor and Gander and more toward eastern Newfoundland.

"So those communities that have been gettingsmoked inrecentlyhopefully will get a little reprieve today," he said.

'Hopefully make some good headway'

Motty said there are eightwater bombers, two bird dogaircraft and air attack officers which will observe the fire ready to fight the flames.

"We got a lot of resources there that we can really knock this down. We want to knock it down, get it down to the ground so we can put our firefighters in there," he said.

"So as soon as we can get on that fire, we're going to hopefully make some good headway," said Motty.

Meanwhile, Motty said theParadise Lake fire is closeto power transmission lines andjumped one of the lines.

In a statement Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro said the fire has crossed twotransmission lines from Bay d'Espoir and itdid cause the lines totrip. They saidboth lines were re-energized and the tripdidn't cause an outage for customers.

N.L. Hydro said the lines have been reliably in service since Saturday, butfire increases the risk of a tripdue to smoke and soot contamination.

Meanwhile, Hydro said the fire has not reached the Labrador-Island Link power transmissioncorridor, which lies between the fire and communities.

The utility said it doesn't anticipate any power outages for customers on the island.

He said they're using the area around another power transmission line, south of Grand Falls-Windsor, to create a firebreak. He saidbulldozers are working along the 30-metre-wide transmission line to dig and create a gap in vegetation to stop the fire from spreading.

"They'll create a 90-metre firebreak. So we're making great, great progress on that," he said.

Motty said Parks Canada is also pitching in with some prescribed burning to make firebreaks more effective.

"We've got a lot of different strategies between ground crews, air crews, prescribed burn and firebreaks that we're using to hopefully protectcommunities from these fires."

Central Health pauses patient moves

Meanwhile, Central Health, the region's health authority, has stopped moving some patients and long-term care home residents to other parts of the island.

Newfoundland and Labrador Health Minister Tom Osborne said they have already moved about 70 long-term care residents from the affected areas to the Western Health region. They've also moved about 50 acute-care patients to Eastern Health, and 10 to Western Health.

"The fire was getting uncomfortably close to Grand Falls-Windsor, Botwood region, but the smoke and the intensity of the smoke was another concern," he said.

Osborne said moving patients was a pre-emptive move, one they did while they could still do it safely.

"If things had gotten further out of hand with the fire we may have been really in a crunch to try to safely move patients and residents," he said.

In an email statement, Eastern Health said it has rescheduled some "non-urgent adult surgeries" set for Monday and Tuesday, as Central Health relocates some of its patients.

The email said the health authority has rescheduled 54surgeries from Monday, across hospitals in Clarenville, Carbonear, and St. John's. Another 36 originally scheduled for Tuesday at the Health Sciences Centre, the Janeway, and St. Clare's hospital have been rescheduled.

Eastern Health said as of Monday, its facilities in the St. John's area have received about 40 patients from the Central Health region.

Air quality warnings

Environment Canada meteorologist Rodney Barney saidthe weather will play a major factor in how the fires behave over the next few days.

Environment Canada has issued a special air quality statement spanning from Gander to the Bonavista Peninsula as smoke from the wildfires reduces air quality.

WATCH | Premier Andrew Furey tells residents of towns near out-of-control fires to prepare for a possible evacuation:

Update on central Newfoundland fires

2 years ago

Duration 5:32

Two fires threatening communities in central Newfoundland grew less than anticipated yesterday due to higher humidity and lighter than predicted winds, says Jeff Motty, Newfoundland and Labrador's forest protection supervisor. However, he said, firefighters are unable to use water bombers in some areas because of the heavy smoke.

"Fortunately, the winds are much weaker today, so that's generally favourable forthe firefighters," said Barney.

He said winds willgusting from 20 to 40 km/h,but with dry conditions they could still cause erratic fire behaviour.

Meanwhile, Barney is eyeing rain that could shower the province on Tuesday. However, the heaviest rainfall between 15 to 25 millimetres is expected over the southern half of the island and toward the AvalonPeninsula, while only fiveto 10 millimetresof rain is forecast for areaswhere the fires are burning.

"Not huge amounts for central, but certainly it'll help," said Barney.

WhileFureyhas urged people near the fire to be on standby, no evacuation order hadbeen given as of Monday morning.

A bus will evacuate people from Grand Falls-Windsorwho are concerned about possible poor air quality from the forest fires in central Newfoundland at 11 a.m. NT. According to a statement on the town's website, the bus will take passengers to an evacuation shelter run by the provincial governmentin Deer Lake. There are pickup locations at theJoe Byrne Memorial Stadium and at Windsor Stadium.

In Bishop's Falls, residents who want to leave the area due to possible smokey conditions and poor air quality can meet at the Salvation Army Church or call the town's office if they require transportation to the church. The town is asking residents to pack essential items like cash, prescription medication, eye glasses, changes of clothing and personal items.

People wishing to leave the area should arrive at muster stations by 10 a.m. and anyone requiring transportation should contact the fire hall, according to the statement.

N.L. declares state of emergency over worst wildfires in decades

2 years ago

Duration 1:55

Newfoundland and Labrador has declared a state of emergency as a result of what Premier Andrew Furey called the worst wildfire situation in the province since 1961.

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