Out-of-control fires have Newfoundland towns on edge as crisis moves into 3rd week
CBC
Two massive forest fires burning in central Newfoundland near the Bay d'Espoir Highway and Paradise Lake were still out of control Monday morning, after significantly growing over the weekend.
A state of emergency was declared in the Grand Falls-Windsor, Bishop's Falls and Connaigre Peninsula areas on Saturday night, and extended to the Botwood area on Sunday. Premier Andrew Furey asked residents to prepare for a possible evacuation.
The Bay d'Espoir Highway, which connects the Connaigre Peninsula on Newfoundland's south coast to the rest of the island, is still closed and will remain that way until further notice.
While officials had thought the fires would merge and become one over the weekend, Jeff Motty, provincial forest fire duty officer, said that is not predicted to happen Monday.
According to remote sensing technology, Motty said the Paradise Lake fire is estimated to be 6,614 hectares, while the Bay d'Espoir fire is about 5,273 hectares.
He said in an interview Monday morning it is too early to say if the fires got even bigger overnight.
Motty said there is still open flame and heavy smoke coming from the fires, which has made firefighting challenging.
"Even with water bombers it was too much smoke to safely through work those fires there yesterday," said Motty.
Motty said there is some positive news as temperatures at the site are expected to be lower Monday, at about 23 C, and winds are expected to be weaker and change direction, blowing from the northwest, on Monday afternoon.
Motty said the more favourable weather conditions are expected to blow smoke away from Grand Falls-Windsor and Gander and more toward eastern Newfoundland.
"So those communities that have been getting smoked in recently hopefully will get a little reprieve today," he said.
Motty said there are eight water bombers, two bird dog aircraft and air attack officers — which will observe the fire — ready to fight the flames.
"So as soon as we can get on that fire, we're going to hopefully make some good headway," said Motty.
Meanwhile, Motty said the Paradise Lake fire is close to power transmission lines and jumped one of the lines.