Wildfire risk is very real

Large wildfire in Yarmouth County burned for a week. Spring wildfires are not uncommon as forests are very dry.

There are important takeaways from a wildfire that burned in Yarmouth County all of last week. An especially important one is not to be deceived into thinking wildfires are only a summer risk.

At this time of year, forests are especially dry because trees are putting all of their energy into new growth. It’s what the Department of Natural Resources and Renewables (DNRR) refers to as the ‘Spring Dip,’ which can make forests very dry until about mid-June.

This points to another important takeaway – adhere to the province’s daily burn restrictions. Burning is not permitted any day between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. and any restrictions beyond that are updated daily. The restrictions are not suggestions, they must be followed – otherwise, the risk of fires spreading to become wildfires is very real.

Last week southwestern Nova Scotia gained the distinction of having the first largest wildfire of the 2022 season, after a blaze broke out on Monday, May 9, near Horseshoe Lake in Yarmouth County’s interior, not far from the Yarmouth-Shelburne counties boundary line.

By Day 2 the wildfire had grown to 1,000 hectares and by Day 3 it covered an area of approximately 3,100 hectares (or 31-square kilometres) and was said to be burning out of control. As the week went on crews were able to gain the upper hand on the fire, preventing it from growing in size. On Saturday morning, May 14, DNRR was able to proclaim that the fire was finally 100 percent contained, with no growth in size detected in days. Crews still remained in case of hotspots and flareups.

It wasn’t known how the wildfire started, but it was known there had not been any lightning strikes in the area, therefore it was believed to be a human-related cause.

Because of this, DNRR was again spreading awareness when it comes to enjoying the

province’s outdoors, whether in your backyard or the backcountry.

“You have to follow the burn restrictions, regardless of where you are,” said Kara McCurdy, a DNRR wildfire prevention officer.

“If (there is) no burning at all then you can’t light a campfire out in the middle of the woods,” she said, adding there are many careless and unintentional things that can start a wildfire.

“If you’re fishing and you happen to be a smoker, you have to be careful where you put cigarette butts or hot matches. With all-terrain vehicles – because you’re going through tall grass and brush – sometimes it accumulates around your exhaust system

and it gets hot and catches fire.”

Even leaving litter behind, like glass, can be problematic.

AIR QUALITY ALERTS

Because of wind direction during the first three days of the wildfire, many parts of Yarmouth town and county were blanketed with smoke and haze. There were even reports of ash and soot, despite the considerable distance from the fire scene.

Environment Canada issued air quality alerts last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, expanding the alert to all of the tri-counties on May 11. It wasn’t until May 12 that the alerts were finally able to be lifted.

Early on, the situation had caused Nova Scotia Health to assemble an incident management team at the Yarmouth Regional Hospital to closely monitor things.

“We are able to smell smoke in some areas of the Yarmouth Regional Hospital, so a Code Grey has been announced for the facility,” spokesperson Fraser Mooney had said on May 10.

“This puts everyone on alert that we must minimize external air from entering the building. This includes instructions to staff to make sure all windows are closed,” he said. “We know the smell of smoke within the hospital is a concern for patients and staff.”

Still, not everyone was impacted by the smoke – it all depended on where you were located and which way the wind blew.

Yarmouth County resident Paul MacDonald lives in East Kemptville. He and his family spent much of the week watching the fire, which he estimated to be about 15 or so kilometres from their home.

“During the day the smoke gets bigger. A lot more as the day goes. The other morning when we left you didn’t notice it, but when we got home it was like, holy,” he had said last Wednesday.

But because of the wind direction they hadn’t experienced any of the smoke at their home.

“We’ve been on the other side of the where the smoke goes. It’s weird. You go to work, you drive through the smoke and get to the other side of the smoke,” he said. “And when you go home, you drive through the smoke to get to the other side with no smoke.”

At night, he said, the glow from the wildfire looked like a sunset.

DNRR had about 40 personnel battling the wildfire, on the ground, from the air, and at an incident command centre in Tusket, where mapping and logistics were handled. Two DNRR helicopters shuttled crews and equipment to and from the fire scene throughout the week, while also assisting in monitoring and mapping; as well as dropping water on the fire at times too.

The day after the fire broke out, a CL-415 water bomber from Newfoundland and Labrador arrived to help, adding to the provincial resources and manpower that had been mobilized.

From May 10 to May 11, the wildfire tripled in size. With the ability to drop around 6,100 litres of water (or around 1,620 gallons), the water bomber was used last Tuesday and Wednesday as the fire was considered too intense to rely solely on ground crews.

But by Thursday and Friday the scenario had changed, with more focus placed on fighting the fire on the ground to contain it and put out flareups on its perimeter. The water bomber remained at the Yarmouth airport in case it was needed.

It was not considered safe to have crews on the ground and the bomber in the air at the same time.

“It’s tonnes of water that gets dropped out of the sky.

It can snap off fairly large trees and break them off, so it’s just not safe to have people working in the same area where they’re dropping water,” explained Paul Schnurr, the DNRR’s incident commander of the wildfire.

“You really have to choose between one or the other and what is going to be the most effective thing,” he said last Friday. “On Tuesday, the fire was too intense to put people

on it; they just couldn’t do anything. Then the weather changed so we could get people on the ground. After that we made the choice it was better to have the people on the ground and work with that, because it was a less intense fire.”

Last Friday the water bomber was reassigned midway through the day to assist with a forest fire that had broken out in the Musquodoboit area of the province and was experiencing intense flames that day. By Saturday it was on its way back to its home province.

There were numerous wildfires, varying in size, reported throughout the province last week – at one count more than 20 wildfires had been reported, which was taxing on DNRR resources.

At times in the earlier part of last week, there had been concerns of the Horseshoe Lake fire getting close to

the Yarmouth County community of Quinan. Residents were even cautioned to watch for evacuation orders. At one estimate the wildfire was about five kilometres away.

But by Thursday that risk had diminished as lighter winds and a change in humidity helped to play a hand in crews being able to gain control of the wildfire. A change in wind direction by week’s end also benefitted the situation with no concern at all of the fire reaching more populated areas. Sunday’s weather forecast also included rain.

In addition to DNRR and media updates on the wildfire, Yarmouth County Regional Emergency Management updated the public on the fire’s status on its Facebook page.

On Saturday morning,

May 14, it posted: “Department of Natural Resources and Renewables is reporting this morning that the fire in Yarmouth County is now under control. Crews will remain on site to manage hot spots … A few camps were destroyed, but thanks to the efforts of the DNRR crews and their sprinkler systems, they were able to save some as well.”

Kara McCurdy of DNRR said wildfires in the province’s interior are difficult to fight given access issues and other factors.

“Not so much the steepness of the terrain but getting in there and getting out is hard to explain. It’s almost like walking on pillows or deep snow,” she said. “You’re trying to get over woody shrubs and probably downed trees from wind damage. It can be difficult to walk through to get through.”

Crews were also pulled out in the evenings for their safety.

“Fighting wildfires at night is difficult because of poor visibility,” said DNR spokesman Steven Stewart. “Fighting wildfires at night increases the risks for firefighters and

limits the supports available. It’s unsafe to be walking in terrain with downed trees if you can’t see where you are going, or effectively set up escape routes and safety zones. In these circumstances, crews will often start work at first light and work until dusk.”

Throughout the week, and upon news of containment of the wildfire, there was much gratitude being expressed to the DNRR crews for their efforts throughout the week; in addition to the lingering message from the department for the public to do its part to prevent wildfires from breaking out and to not fall into the ‘we only need to worry about wildfires in the summer’ mentality.

“This is actually a deceiving time for people because of what is available to burn. Dead grass takes about four hours for it to dry out. So we could have rain in the morning and grass by the afternoon available to burn,” DNRR’s Paul Schnurr said. “Other stuff like needles and leaves on the forest floor, that takes about 18 hours to dry out. So one good day will dry that out.”

But what is most problematic is the new growth trees are starting to sprout, which redirects their moisture.

Said Schnurr, “A lot of people think of the summer being hot and dry, which is true of any dead material in the forest, but this really is the time when the trees are dry.”