'This is going to be a prolonged operation': Halifax-area wildfire grows to 837 hectares

Officials say the wildfire burning in the Upper Tantallon, N.S., area has grown to 837 hectares.

Officials say the wildfire burning in the Upper Tantallon, N.S., area has grown to 837 hectares.

Dave Steeves, with Nova Scotia’s Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, provided an update on the fire Wednesday morning along with Halifax Fire deputy chief David Meldrum.

Steeves attributes the fire growth -- of about 49 hectares -- to Tuesday’s fire behaviour and more accurate mapping.

“It’s not something that we didn’t foresee happening yesterday, with the weather that we had. And we were fortunate with the hard work of the firefighters on the ground that we were able to hold it to where we did.”

He says Wednesday could be another difficult, dangerous day, with winds gusting up to 25 kilometers out of the southwest and low humidity at around 20 per cent.

“When our relative humidity levels get close to the forecasted temperature of today, that’s a phenomenon of what we call crossover and the phenomenon of crossover is an indicator of extreme fire behaviour.”

Meldrum says approximately 100 firefighters will work on hotspots and flare ups Wednesday, including two units from Charlottetown.