Stay out of exlusion zones, public told

Extreme seriousness surrounding Shelburne County wildfire situation stressed Friday

As southwestern Nova Scotia waited for much-needed rain to arrive on the weekend, on Friday the extreme seriousness of the wildfire situation in Shelburne County was again stressed as the largest of the province’s wildfires grew to over 21,515 hectares.

“It is incredibly important for people to understand how severe the situation is in the Municipality of Shelburne,” Shelburne Municipal Warden Penny Smith said in a Friday provincial media briefing. “I can tell you as a community, we have certainly come together and just given support to each other the best we can.”

She noted more than 50 per cent of their residents have been evacuated, along with several seniors’ longterm care facilities and the Roseway Hospital.

It’s been previously reported that about 50 residences – homes, camps and cottages – in Shelburne County have been lost. The fire has impacted residents in both the municipalities of Barrington and Shelburne as there have been mandatory evacuations from both the Barrington Lake fire and the Lake Road fire.

Smith said evacuees are wondering about the status of their homes. While they would like to provide more answers, she said they can’t yet.

“I have not received details on the number yet. Updates will be provided as soon as we know,” she said.

She added they will be working very closely with the provincial and federal levels of government to ensure the supports needed will be there for residents.

DNRR said on Friday the Barrington Lake fire was being battled by about 40 DNRR firefighters, 40 volunteer/municipal firefighters, a water bomber and five helicopters.

Dave Rockwood of DNRR said in the 3 p.m. briefing that there was still growth happening with that fire because of the weather. While rain is in the weekend forecast, getting through Friday’s hot and windy weather was still a challenge.

“This thing has grown some teeth,” he said about out-of-control wildfire.

Wind shifts were an issue crews were contending with.

The Lake Road fire in the Municipality of Shelburne was also still burning out of control and estimated at 114 hectares with 23 DNRR firefighters fighting it.

Rockwood noted eight air tankers from New Brunswick who have been assisting with wildfires in Nova Scotia were recalled by that province to deal with situations happening there.

There was also a DNRR helicopter out of play due to mechanical issues.

He said there is a lot of heavy equipment on scene with bulldozers and excavators which are aiding with efforts on the ground.

The province has also said that more firefighter and water bomber help from outside of the province was on its way and/or has arrived.

‘STAY OUT OF OUR AREA’

Rockwood stressed Friday that people must keep out of the evacuation zones, both for their own safety and so as not to get in the way of firefighting efforts.

“We need people to stay out of our area,” he said bluntly. “If you have no business, you haven’t been granted access to exclusion zones within the evacuation zones, you need to stay out.”

He said there have been instances when boats have interfered with the N.L. water bomber filling up a load and he described an instance where it prevented a water drop in the fire zone.

“We’ve had a number of instances where people have just come into the fire zone trying to get pictures. We’ve had boats out on lakes. We’re not even sure where the people have come from. They’ve just popped out,” Rockwood said, saying when a water bomber is coming in, you don’t want to be in its way.

“Thank God the pilot caught onto it and there wasn’t an incident,” he said, but he did describe an incident where people were checking on a friend’s camp and a water drop couldn’t be made. He said that structure was lost.

Barrington Warden Eddie Nickerson expressed praise on Friday for the huge community effort that has come together to help the wildfire evacuees, and thanked everyone who is involved in fighting the wildfires. He said the Municipality of Barrington has never faced a crisis like this before.

“The message we want to get out to our residents is we are experiencing a fire that we’ve never dealt with before. We’re looking at wind change. It’s unpredictable,” he said, saying residents need to understand that there could be more evacuations on short notice.

Warden Smith also extended gratitude to all frontline workers, including firefighters, DNRR crews and staff, “and others who are literally working around the clock to keep us safe.