The wildfire in Yarmouth County has been 60% contained according to the Department of Natural Resources and Renewables.
“It is a relatively large fire for Nova Scotia,” says Manager of forest protection for DNRR Scott Tingley. “It was a very fast moving fire on Tuesday with pretty favorable conditions weather-wise yesterday and it allowed crews to make some headway in conjunction with the fixed wing air tanker from Newfoundland and our department helicopters.”
The 40 provincial firefighters that were sent in are still on scene and the fire is estimated to still be around 3,100 hectares in size. They’re being assisted by the two DNRR helicopters and the water bomber from Newfoundland.
Tingley gave an update the current conditions around the fire and where the focus is.
“We’re certainly heading into a couple days of hot, dry and windy weather. We’re not expecting the extreme dry conditions that we had on Tuesday. There are only a couple areas that are still hot on the perimeter and that is the focus of the crews and the aircraft today.”
Tingley adds with the current hot dry weather they are anticipating a wind shift but are confident enough resources are in place to keep the fire where it’s at right now.
He says the incident management team mobilized yesterday and took over scene management today.
On Tuesday the wildfire was 5 km from a lakeside community near Quinan but it hasn’t grown significantly since then and is not expected to impact homes or communities.
DNRR does not expect the fire to grow significantly today.
Tingley is also reminding the public to check the daily burning restrictions and to not fly drones near the fire.
Thursday: No burning in Queens, Shelburne or Yarmouth counties today. Burning restricted until 7 p.m. in all other counties.
Check before you burn and know municipal bylaws! Restrictions updated daily at 2 p.m.: https://t.co/RzP6hCjupx pic.twitter.com/IzGwEhsOaj
— Natural Resources and Renewables (@NS_DNRR) May 12, 2022
