‘This is a big perimeter’: Wildfire near Halifax forces 14,000 from homes — but extent of damage unknown

Thousands of Nova Scotia residents woke Monday morning with no clear idea as to whether their homes had been destroyed by a wildfire raging out of control some 20 kilometres northwest of Halifax.

Spurred by high temperatures and fed by high winds, what began as a series of structure fires in a Tantallon subdivision Sunday rapidly developed into an uncontrolled forest fire threatening other subdivisions by that evening.

Through a dark haze of smoke, sometimes with fires burning along the side of the roads, approximately 14,000 people were forced to flee as evacuation orders were issued on three separate occasions over the provincial emergency alert system as the fire spread.

Those evacuation orders applied to an area of approximately 75 square kilometres, within about a 30-minute drive of Halifax.

Halifax Mayor Mike Savage declared a state of emergency for the region, giving the municipality access to contingency funds and powers to battle the fire.

During a morning briefing, Halifax Deputy Fire Chief David Meldrum said the extent of the fire and the damage it has done so far is unclear.

He said 100 firefighters and 30 vehicles had been deployed overnight to fight the fire, along with a number of water bombers — including some flown in from Newfoundland — and helicopters from the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resource and Renewables.

At least 10 homes in the Tantallon subdivision had been burned, he said; some reports suggest that number might be as high as 50.

On Monday morning, the provincial ministry was flying aerial surveys to determine the extent of the fire.

“This time of year is important,” said Meldrum. “This is a spring fire. Firefighters always hope to get through spring. We come out of winter and the ground cover is dry, it’s brown, the vegetation hasn’t taken on much hydration.

“We believe that climate change contributes to volatility,” he said. “We’re seeing more severe storms than we’ve seen before. Winds are very important to us. We’re seeing wind action that exacerbates fires, and certainly long dry spells are becoming more common in many regions.”

By Monday morning, temperatures had dropped, and the wind had receded somewhat, shifting direction so the fire was moving back on itself, a small bit of good news, said Meldrum. But he characterized the fire as “uncontrolled” and said, with residents relocated, firefighters were prioritizing protecting homes and buildings still threatened by the fire.

Meldrum said there was no timeline for residents to return to their homes. Once fire crews do get the blaze contained, he said, there will still be days of mop-up work, stamping down any smoldering portions of the fire that might reignite the forest.

“Traditionally, we want to get hose lines around the entire perimeter of a fire and have what’s called a wet hose line around the perimeter. This is a big perimeter.”

At the same time as wildfires burned outside of Halifax, Nova Scotia fire crews were also battling another, larger wildfire in Shelburne County, in the southwestern part of the province.

Provincial officials said the uncontrolled wildfire in the remote area around Barrington Lake had nearly tripled in size to 2,296 hectares by Monday morning, propelled by high winds and high temperatures.

Evacuation orders were also in place for several communities in that area along with highway closures.

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