Smoke from a wildfire in Labrador City, N.L., on July 12.Janelle Nippard/The Canadian Press
A senior fire official in the Newfoundland and Labrador government said Monday he hopes rain will intensify and help firefighters contain a wildfire that has forced the evacuation of Labrador City.
George Gibbons, the provincial fire duty officer, said 10 to 15 millimetres of rain was expected through the day, but he added that to truly “douse” the fire that is about four kilometres from town, about 50 to 100 mm is needed.
He repeated comments provided by Premier Andrew Furey earlier in the day that the rain has given provincial teams some breathing room to look for places along the perimeter to battle the fire.
“The weather is giving forestry staff a little reprieve today and a chance to do some on-the-ground planning and possibly establish some fire breaks and looking for places to set up sprinkler systems around critical infrastructure,” Gibbons said in an interview.
“We have the fire split in two Quebec has taken over the eastern portion of the fire and Newfoundland has taken over the western portion.”
Four water bombers and three helicopters from Newfoundland and Labrador were available to fight the fire on the southwestern flank, while two water bombers and several helicopters from Quebec were on hand to battle the eastern side. The Newfoundland and Labrador aircraft were temporarily grounded on Monday afternoon because of a low cloud system.
Gibbons said the forestry service has requested firefighting help from other provinces. “There’s a lot of fire on the go right across Canada so it’s hard to get more resources We’ve put in requests for 60 additional firefighters from out of province,” he said.
On Friday, an abrupt change in weather conditions caused the blaze to grow from six to about 100 square kilometres – advancing 21 km toward Labrador City in just four hours. More than 7,400 Labrador City residents were told to pack up and leave around 5:30 p.m. local time Friday.
Municipal officials asked them to head east to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, a six-hour drive along the remote, two-lane Trans-Labrador Highway. Labrador City remains evacuated, and Mayor Belinda Adams announced in an online video update late Monday that the town has declared a state of emergency.
Adams said the declaration was to ensure the safety of the public, workers and infrastructure and would enable the town to seek additional support to maintain essential services and protect assets.
Wildfires have already devoured twice as much land in Newfoundland and Labrador this summer than in typical years, Blair Adams with the province’s Forestry Department said Saturday.
Gibbons – who estimates the fire has a perimeter of about 15 to 20 km – said it has burned so intensely that it’s likely there will be hot spots appearing for days, adding it’s crucial firefighters are able to get into these areas and “extinguish one hot spot at a time.”
He said heavy rainfall is also a key ingredient to truly extinguish the blaze. “We have a lot of sub-surface fires, so to get down to the roots of the heat you need a lot of water to lessen that,” he said.