With few resources, remote Quebec towns worry about fire safety
Isolated communities on Lower North Shore say they are under-equipped to deal with fires
Kegaska, one of several isolated communities scattered about Quebec's Lower North Shore, doesn't have a fire department. It doesn't even have fire hydrants.
When a fire broke out in a house on Monday, it took the closest fire truck 40 minutes to make the 50-kilometre drive from Natashquan. There was little left of the house by the time the firefighters arrived.
Though no one was hurt in Monday's fire, it renewed concerns within the community about its ability to respond to emergencies.
"We just don't have any good fire equipment here as far as I'm concerned," said Steven Kippen, a resident who was one of the first people at the scene.
With the help of a few other locals, Kippen dragged water pumps and hoses to the shoreline of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Their efforts were complicated by the fact the tide was out, but they still managed to contain the fire while the Natashquan Fire Department was on its way.
If circumstances had been different, though, there is no telling what damage the fire would have wrought, Kippen said.
"If it's wintertime, and the bay is frozen over, how are we going to get water?"
Minimal infrastructures
Kegaska is one of five towns that make up the Municipality of Côte-Nord-du-Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent. Its administrator, Darlene Rowsell-Roberts, said Natashquan's assistance that night was crucial to preventing further damage.
But the road that connects the two communities, Highway 138, ends in Kegaska. "I don't know what the outcome would have been in other communities further up the coast," Rowsell-Roberts said.
Gros-Mecatina is one of those communities. Mayor Randy Jones said he's been trying to bring attention to fire safety for years. The threat of forest fires makes the community even more vulnerable.
"I don't know what we'd do," Jones said. "There's no solution to evacuate 500 people, many of them seniors."
Jones added that Telus put an end to its pager service in Quebec in 2015. Since there is no cell phone service, the only way to reach emergency personnel is on a land line.
"We're out of sight and out of mind," said Jones.
The local MNA for the Duplessis riding, Lorraine Richard, was not available for comment.
