N.S. wildfire forces evacuations
A wildfire has consumed three square kilometres in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia.
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CBC
43 minutes ago
- CBC
Current N.L. wildfires reminiscent of the devastating summer of 1961
"There's a type of flower that closes up at night when it gets dark, and those flowers were closing up in the middle of the day, at noon-hour. The smoke was just so thick." That's how Marvin Barnes, who was six years old and living in Valleyfield at the time, remembers the summer of 1961 in Bonavista Bay. That year, record dry conditions on the island of Newfoundland led to a spate of wildfires that burned for more than three months. Then, as now, crews had to contend with blazes in several different locations at once. Then, as now, thousands of people were evacuated from their communities and could only wait for news on the fate of their homes. The province took steps that will sound familiar to those of us living through this year's ferocious wildfire season. Authorities banned open fires, prohibited travel through the woods, and ultimately declared a state of emergency and asked the Canadian government to send military support. When the flames finally guttered out, they left behind millions of acres of scorched earth and a province determined to change its approach to forest fires in the future. Fighting for the life of the town The summer of 1961 was an unusually dry one. Less than an inch (25.4 milimetres) of rain had fallen on Newfoundland's east coast from late May to early August, compared to an annual average of almost 200 millimetres The dry spell made a tinderbox of Newfoundland's forests and fields, and by mid-June there were a dozen major wildfires burning out of control. One of the most destructive of them was in Bonavista North. First spotted on June 12 near Traverse Brook, it spread rapidly up the coast to Hare Bay, where hundreds of women and children were forced to spend the night in schooners offshore. That was only the beginning. The conflagration would burn for three months and, at its peak, extend over 200,000 hectares. When then-minister of Mines and Resources W. J. Keough flew over the area in early August, he said the smoke from the blaze furled tens of thousands of feet into the air "like the burst from an atomic bomb." Dr. Rex Gibbons, a geologist who would eventually become minister of Mines and Energy himself under the Wells government, was fifteen years old in 1961 and had just graduated from grade eleven when he and his family learned the fire was moving up the shore toward them. "We'd heard of houses burning in Hare Bay and other places along the way," he said in an interview, "and we knew the fire was heading towards Lumsden, towards all the towns here on the coast." While his mother and six younger siblings evacuated to Lumsden North, which was out on a sandy peninsula and safe from the flames, Gibbons and his father stayed behind with the men of the community to help build a fire break. "Every capable person in Lumsden was on the fire line," he remembers. "We were fighting for the life of the town and our own livelihoods." Beating down the burning grass with shovels and spraying hotspots with water from the cans strapped to their backs, they managed to stop the flames from reaching the town. Gibbons and some of his friends later went west along the shore to Carmanville to help fight the fire there. Wildfires lead to improvements in N.L.'s forestry service To prevent further outbreaks, the government banned open fires except at designated sites in public parks and restricted outdoor smoking. They prohibited travel through the woods on the Avalon and Burin peninsulas, including for the purposes of camping, fishing, and berry picking. Officials also introduced mandatory jail sentences for anyone found to have started a fire in the forests, whether intentionally or through negligence. Two young men were sentenced to serve six months in the penitentiary for deliberately setting a fire in a forest in central Newfoundland. Eventually, the provincial government declared a state of emergency, and Ottawa dispatched over 1,200 Canadian troops to help get the blazes under control. By the end of summer, the fires had obliterated dozens of homes and, according to estimates at the time, more than half a million hectares of wilderness. They wiped out Bonavista North's thriving logging industry, which many residents relied on for their winter livelihoods, and, in the words of then-deputy Resources minister Stuart Peters, destroyed "a combination of soils, plants and animals that took from fifteen to twenty thousand years to establish." All that remained across great swaths of the province were ghostly white spruce trunks and ashes on bedrock. But for all its tragedy, the summer of 1961 led to permanent improvements in the way Newfoundland and Labrador deals with wildfires. The scope of the disaster revealed that the province's forestry service lacked the resources to fight such large fires, so the province purchased six aircraft: two Canso water bombers, one large helicopter for transporting firefighters and gear, and three small fixed-wing planes. The government also established a network of 12 weather stations to monitor for hazardous conditions across the province. The fires left an indelible mark not only on landscapes and institutions, but on the people of the province. For Gibbons, the experience is something that those who lived through it will never forget. "We all remember '61."
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Summer camps in Nova Scotia take precautions amid wildfire threat
Social Sharing Summer camps in Nova Scotia are brushing up on their evacuation procedures in case of fire, say camp staff. Paige Bigelow, executive director at Kingswood Camp in Aylesford, says she has been receiving calls from parents who are concerned about fire risk at the camp. "They're trusting us with their children for the weekend," said Bigelow. "So camper safety is our priority. We're trying to be as upfront and honest with them as the situation changes." She said staff are being vigilant around the woods, especially following the two small fires nearby in Lake Paul. Alison Cook, a camp administrator at Camp Kidston in Middle Musquodoboit, said their property is surrounded by woods in an area that has been determined to have severe drought, according to the Canadian Drought Monitor. "If we have to evacuate, we have a plan in place, and the best way we can follow through with that is if we're all here in one place at base camp," she said, noting that activities in the woods have been suspended and kids are only allowed at base camp and the lake. In a statement to CBC, the Department of Emergency Management said it works with municipalities to help develop their emergency plans, and then "municipalities work with organizations in their area to support them" in creating evacuation plans. "Anyone facing an evacuation order would be contacted directly from authorities, whether that be RCMP, local police, or through the Department of Emergency Management. This would apply for residents, businesses or organizations running summer camps," said the department. Bigelow says her camp is prepared to move its nearly 90 people on site to safety if a wildfire threatens, including staff and campers. "We have a few different areas we could evacuate to in either direction depending on where the fire is coming from," she said. "We'd get all of our campers into the cars we have on site and drive them to one of those locations." Cook says her camp does not have vehicles to transport children and would depend on emergency services. The camp is confident after a check with emergency services that it could get the campers a bus and get everyone out in case of an emergency. The camp also has a lake nearby, which could also help. "If there is a fire, everyone heads to the waterfront and puts on life-jackets in case we need to get in the water to protect ourselves," she said. Changes in programming Summer camps have also had to adapt some of their programming, such as stopping campfires. Bigelow said that Kingswood Camp has few trails in the woods, so there has been little need to change programming. "Since then, we have been in contact with the Department of Natural Resources, and they've advised us that we can continue on as we normally would," she said.
CTV News
6 hours ago
- CTV News
West Dalhousie, N.S., wildfire nearly doubles in size overnight prompting state of emergency
Watch The County of Annapolis has declared a state of emergency as wildfires continue to impact the community, CTV's Paul Hollingsworth reports.
