Barrington wildfire forces evacuations

“Unprecedented” describes an unrelenting wildfire and its impacts, says the Municipality of Barrington, which on Monday saw more mandatory evacuations put in place due to the fire that by mid-day was more than 6,270 hectares in size and still burning out of control.

The fire was travelling in a southwest direction and due to dry and windy conditions was forcing more people to have to leave their homes.

New mandatory evacuations put in place on Monday included all communities from Port Clyde, through to Baccaro, and all along Highway 309 to the intersection of Oak Park Road and Highway 3 in Barrington West.

Highway 103 remained closed between Exit 27 and Exit 30. The evacuations included an area along Highway 309 from Port Clyde to the intersection of the Oak Park Road and Highway 3 in Barrington West as well as along Highway 103 from Exit 28 in Clyde River to Exit 30 in Riverhead and from 800 Upper Clyde Road to 2461 Upper Clyde Road.

The municipality was also going to declare a state of emergency. Emergency alerts were also planned as a means of keeping people informed.

“This new evacuation is going to displace quite a few people,” said Barrington CAO Chris Frotten on Monday morning. Because the municipality’s administration building was in the evacuation area, the reception / registration location for evacuees was being moved to the Sandy Wickens Memorial Arena, along with the municipality’s base of operations.

The reason evacuees were being asked to register is two-fold.

“One, to know who’s evacuated because we were going door to door – so kind of to cross-reference those households we visited and the reports or the registrations we receive,” Frotten said. “And to gather contact information to be able to reach out to them in the event of an update or when it’s safe enough to go back.”

Anyone with questions can also call the Emergency Coordination Centre at 902-6377899.

SAFETY ABOVE ALL

Safety continues to be the paramount concern as the fire spreads – particularly since the forecast has no rain all week.

Previous evacuation areas have included: Barrington Lake area; Goose Lake area; along the Upper Clyde Road; the Quinns Road; and along parts of Highway 103 from Browns Pit Road to 10341 Highway 103.

Frotten says when determining areas to be evacuated they also have to take into account places that would be cut off if the fire were to spread there.

The Barrington and Clark’s Harbour Emergencies Measures page includes the evacuation areas in updates on its Facebook page.

There have been questions about Bay Side Home, a long-term seniors care facility in Barrington. Frotten said Monday morning that the facility has been monitoring the situation and has been pre-planning in the event that they do have to evacuate.

On Monday, several TCRCE schools were closed including Forest Ridge Academy, Barrington Municipal High School, Hillcrest Academy and Shelburne Regional High School. TCRCE said it was closely monitoring the situation and would provide ongoing updates to families while also following the direction of the Emergency Management Office and the municipality.

In a Monday noon update, the province said the fire was under attack from 40 Department of Natural Resources and Renewables staff, more than 40 volunteer firefighters, two DNRR helicopters and a water bomber from Newfoundland and Labrador.

“Some structures have been destroyed and others are threatened, but there are no firm details on the numbers yet,” said the update.

There are some road closures and a section of Highway 103 remains closed.

People not directly impacted by the situation are asked to remain away from the area.

The Red Cross has been assisting with donation management and helping to coordinate offers of help that have come from the public, businesses and organizations.

The emergency measures organization in Barrington is also in contact with EMO in Yarmouth County as well.

LEAVING HOMES

Shelburne County resident Sam Brannen isn’t sure of the thought process that goes into packing up one’s home when you have to evacuate it, knowing there is a chance there might not be anything to come home to.

It was something she and her husband, and many others in Shelburne County, had to figure out as the wildfire burned out of control over the weekend and continued to grow in size Monday forcing more evacuations.

At first, they started packing things up on Saturday as a precaution – in case they had to evacuate.

“We’re like, what do we need?” she said in an interview on Monday. She didn’t know if their house has survived.

The fire, which has been called the Barrington Lake fire given where it first broke out, spread to other areas on the weekend, including Clyde River, the area where Brannen’s family home is located. She said in deciding what to take, there were a lot of personal mementos, including ones belonging to her daughter, that they hated the thought of losing; and also a lot of family heirlooms and important documents.

They started packing things up in an enclosed trailer.

Pardon the pun, she said, but they thought on Saturday they were “out of the woods” and wouldn’t have to leave. But on Sunday came the mandatory evacuation order.

“It’s very surreal,” she said, adding your mind is racing as you’re grabbing personal items. “We were just aimless. We had never done this before.”

“We filled what we could in the trailer. I think we took only one piece of furniture, a bunch of artwork and photo albums, that kind of thing,” Brannen said. When they got to a family’s home where they are staying, and when she took a closer look at what she grabbed, some made her shake her head.

“I packed a bathing suit. I packed a dress, but no shoes besides the sneakers I had on my feet. Some jeans, sweatshirts. I work in an office, but that’s what I thought to pack. I don’t know what I was thinking,” she said.

“Right before we had to leave, I grabbed pajamas off the clothesline,” she said, adding perhaps she grabbed the bathing suit because it was a good fit.

Their cats, she said, were outdoors and they couldn’t find them in time so they had to heartbreakingly leave them behind.

NOT ENOUGH COMMUNICATION

Brannen is the administrator of The Barrington Exchange Facebook page, where she’s been posting information about the wildfire for residents.

Overall, however, she’s felt communication has been lacking for residents – not so much from a local perspective, but from a provincial one with regards to what is happening and what to expect. She said between Saturday evening and Sunday morning there was a lengthy gap with no information.

And an added issue in the county, she said, is there are many areas where cell phone coverage is poor or lacking – an issue that’s been brought up in the past.

“It’s an SOS situation. In some places, there’s zero coverage. How are these people supposed to hear anything, access things?” she said. “If they’re not on the internet, the power gets shut off, they’ve got nothing. So this is a concern.”

And she said when information is potentially life or death, there needs to be more of it coming through.

“I really am frustrated with the lack of communication at the higher level on this,” she said Monday.

One thing that isn’t concerning – in fact, it’s heartwarming – is the amount of support from the community and volunteers in coming to the aid of those displaced and those fighting the fire.

You can hear the emotion in Brannen’s voice when she describes how much it is appreciated – such as the efforts at the Barrington Lions Club, and the offers for help, support and assistance flooding social media.

“I had so many messages personally from people, ‘hey, I’ve got a truck. I can come and help you. What do you need?’” she said – help that’s been extended to others too.

“The Lions Hall has a long history of being fantastic and they continue to be fantastic. But even when they put a post out of things that they were looking for, the response was overwhelming for them to the point that they had filled their capacity for their need,” she said.

“I can’t say enough about our community support. We look after our own when it comes to a situation or crisis ... but in this, in this case, it’s especially overwhelming.”

Meanwhile, as evacuees continued to wonder about the status of their homes, one thing Brannen asked on social media is for people to refrain from making posts saying specific homes have been destroyed – it may be true, but it may be false.

Said Brannen, “Nobody deserves to find out the state of their home by someone else’s social media post.”