Government addresses New Brunswickers after more than a week of wildfires
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CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Lightning strikes across Nova Scotia could soon ignite more wildfires: official
HALIFAX — New wildfires across Nova Scotia could be ignited in the days ahead after thunderstorms rolled across the province Thursday night and into the morning, a fire official said Friday. Forest protection director Jim Rudderham said lightning can penetrate deep into the ground. 'The layers right down through the soil are very dry,' he told a virtual briefing. 'Lightning has a lot of power. It could drive into the ground and take some time to work its way back out again with fire .... It might take a while to pop up. ' Rudderham said that's bad news for a province that was already dealing with 11 wildfires on Friday, including one that has been out of control since Wednesday in Annapolis County. That fire grew from three to four square kilometres in the past two days, forcing the evacuation of about 100 homes in the heavily wooded West Dalhousie area, about 125 kilometres west of Halifax. Rudderham said that on Thursday, provincial officials asked for help from water bombers in another province, but those aircraft could not make it to Nova Scotia because of the long line of thunderstorms. The availability of water bombers has been stretched thin because of the ongoing wildfires across Atlantic Canada, he said. Dave Steeves, a spokesman for the Natural Resources Department, said the helicopters Nova Scotia uses to extinguish fires work well. 'I've been a professional firefighter for over 20 years now and the helicopter resources that we have are extremely effective,' he said. 'We have a group of very talented pilots.' Rudderham agreed. 'The vast majority of our wildfires are easily contained by the machines we have,' he said. 'Remember, this is an extreme year where all the agencies are busy right now, but we continue to investigate and look at options to see what's best for us.' While the thunderstorms dumped rain on some areas, it wasn't enough to reduce the risk of more wildfires, Rudderham said. 'We'll take any kind of moisture,' he said. 'But it's very dry out there and it wasn't enough to help us.' Steeves said milder temperatures and higher humidity was helping firefighters, but 'we're still dealing with a relatively explosive situation.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 15, 2025.
CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Province sends airtankers to New Brunswick as Alberta wildfire situation improves
A wildfire burns in the Miramichi, N.B., area on Aug. 11, 2025. (New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources) The province is sending airtankers to help fight wildfires in New Brunswick after cooler weather and rain lowered activity in Alberta. The government said Friday afternoon it's sending three airtankers, one birddog and two air attack officers to help battle wildfires in New Brunswick. There are 52 wildfires in Alberta's Forest Protection Area, the province said. Six fires are out of control, six are being held and 40 are under control.
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Heat wave hampers fight against wildfires in Spain, Portugal, Greece
Firefighters in Spain, Portugal and Greece battled ongoing wildfires Friday, an important religious holiday in all three countries, as persistent hot, dry conditions challenged efforts to contain the blazes. Spain was fighting 14 major fires, according to Virginia Barcones, general director of emergency services. Temperatures were expected to climb over the weekend. "Today will once again be a very tough day, with an extreme risk of new fires," Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on X. The national weather agency AEMET warned of extreme fire risk in most of the country, including where the largest blazes were burning in the north and west. A heat wave, which brought temperatures exceeding 40 C on several days this month, was expected to last through Monday. Fires in the Galicia region forced the closure of several highways. The high speed rail line connecting it to Spain's capital, Madrid, remained suspended. The fires in Spain this year have burned 158,000 hectares, according to the European Union's European Forest Fire Information System. That's an area roughly as big as metropolitan London. The wildfires raged on Friday as many European countries celebrated a religious holiday devoted to the Virgin Mary, known in Catholic countries like Spain and Portugal as the Feast of the Assumption. Thousands of firefighters battling Portugal's fires In Portugal, nearly 4,000 firefighters were battling fires on Friday. Seven major fires were active. Authorities extended the state of alert until Sunday as high temperatures were expected to last through the weekend. The Portuguese government on Friday requested assistance from the EU's civil protection mechanism, a firefighting force that European countries in need can call upon. A day before, Spain received two Canadair water bomber aircraft after requesting EU help to tackle blazes for the first time ever. In the past week, Greece, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Albania have also requested help from the EU's firefighting force to deal with forest fires. The force has already been activated as many times this year as all of last year's fire season. On Friday, a wildfire in Greece burned out of control for a fourth day on the island of Chios, prompting several more overnight evacuations. Two water-dropping planes and two helicopters were operating in the north of the island in the eastern Aegean Sea, where local authorities said a lull in high winds was helping firefighters early Friday. Following a series of large fires in western Greece earlier this week, the fire service was on alert Friday outside Athens and nearby areas in the south of the country where adverse weather conditions elevated the fire risk. The spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew expressed solidarity on Friday with the victims of wildfires in southern Europe during prayers on a day that is also important for Orthodox Christians and known as the Dormition of the Virgin Mary. Scientists say that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness in parts of Europe, making the region more vulnerable to health impacts and wildfires. The burning of fossil fuels like coal and gas releases heat-trapping gasses that are the primary driver of climate change. Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service. The EU monitoring agency says that 2024 was the hottest year on record both globally and in Europe, which experienced its second-highest number of "heat stress" days.
