Fire threatening Labrador City remains stable, says premier
Water bombers and a helicopter continue the fight Tuesday
With help from wet weather and successful fire suppression efforts early this week, the fire threatening Labrador City has been stopped in its tracks, says Premier Andrew Furey.
Speaking to reporters from Halifax, Furey said there was good news from fire staff on Tuesday.
"It remains a Category One fire and no significant growth, that's still around 14,000 hectares, give or take," he told reporters.
The fire is still between four and six kilometres from Labrador City, Furey said, adding the wind remains low.
"The temperature, while increasing, is not as high as it had been previously week. And the humidex remains medium as well," he said.
"There is some modelling showing some minor growth perhaps today but certainly the conditions are such that suppression activity and mitigation measures should be able to continue."
Furey expects water bombers will be used on Tuesday and helicopter support on the eastern front, with Quebec focusing on the fire on the western side.
Provinces across the country are also experiencing significant threats from forest fires. As a result, federal government resources are more limited than normal.
The evacuation of Labrador City prompted thousands of people to travel the 500 kilometres to Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
Furey said roughly 6,000 have registered with the Red Cross in the community so far.
Households that register with the Red Cross are eligible for $1,000 from the provincial government, meant to help people recover the cost of gas, food and personal items that needed to be replaced following the evacuation.
In a social media post Tuesday evening, Furey said the first 300 households received payments on Tuesday with more scheduled for Tuesday night and into tomorrow.
Leaving like 'apocalypse'
An evacuee who fled Labrador City, threatened by wildfire, compared the experience to the end of the world.
Matthew Soper said he and his family had just sat down to supper when the evacuation order came Friday evening. Within an hour and a half they were ready to go but had trouble getting onto the highway because of traffic congestion.
"We ended up getting in a line on our street for about 2½ hours to get to the line to get out of town," he told CBC News.
Around 12:30 a.m. Saturday they stopped in Churchill Falls to get gas, which he estimates took 5½ hours.
"It felt a little bit like the apocalypse, because we were in the middle of nowhere in the woods in a bumper-to-bumper line trying to get fuel to get somewhere else," said Soper.
Hours later, they arrived in Goose Bay, where they're staying in a friend's spare bedroom.
Soper said there's no sense of when they might be able to return home.
"I assume they're not going to let us back in until we're 100 per cent sure that it's not going to happen again. Evacuating a town of 9,000 people with one road out I'm sure was chaos to try to manage. They did a wonderful job."
He is worried about the town he left behind, but he said the most important thing is that they're safe.
Community pulls through
Soper said the community response to their plight, like businesses giving discounts to those in need and restaurants and churches handing out free meals, has helped ease some of the hopelessness.
"It's been really eye-opening, and I'm really proud to be Labradorian today for sure," said Soper.
Mokami Status of Women Council executive director Stacey Hoffe said it's been busy at their thrift store, where they're giving away essential items — including shampoo, tampons and baby products — to evacuees in need.
"Whatever folks need, we're trying to fill that gap for them," said Hoffe.
"We're giving these items away for free because we know people had to leave their homes really quickly and were panicked and rushed and didn't think about the things that they might need."
Hoffe added they are accepting donations, including clothing towels, sheets, blankets and reusable bags. They are also taking monetary donations.
Celian Lezer, who made the journey to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, was able to find someone to house his 15-year-old cat through the local SPCA, which put out a call out for temporary foster homes to help evacuees.
"I just realized I couldn't keep her with me anymore because she has a few health issues and I had to find a place," Lezer said.
"They were able to find a lady that had room for one cat and that already has been just wonderful. Just taking the best care of her."
Knowing someone is looking after his cat reduces some of his stress over the situation, he said.
Water bombers, landing pads and sprinklers
On Monday evening, Labrador City Mayor Belinda Adams declared a state of emergency in the evacuated town.
Provincial fire duty officer George Gibbons said the fire near Labrador City is still active and there's lots of smoke.
Monday's efforts to fight the fire was good, he said, and they were helped by about eight millimetres of rain falling on the fire.
"It's still a very live fire," Gibbons told CBC News on Tuesday morning. Tuesday's forecast is for sunny and warmer weather, he said.
"So it's going to start drying out again today."
On Tuesday, he said, they will have four water bombers in the air, focusing on the fire's western edge. There will also be three helicopters and one plane in use.
They have 11 firefighters, he said, who won't be on the ground to fight the fire but will be going into the forest to cut down helicopter landing pads so they will be able to move firefighters in the next few days
Gibbons said they are also looking for places to set up a sprinkler system.
They have secured 20 firefighters from New Brunswick to help and 40 from Newfoundland and Labrador will be helping by Thursday, so there will be around 60 firefighters dedicated to fighting the fire. Quebec has taken over half of the fire and have their own team in place to manage its response, he added.
Gibbons noted a fire ban is still place across the province and warned people against starting fires even if it has been damp in their area. The provincial fire service is moving all its firefighting resources to Labrador, he said, can't afford another fire in the province.
Minimal rainfall for area
According to the provincial government's online fire dashboard, there are 13 fires in Labrador as of Tuesday morning, the same as Monday.
As of the last report, crews were holding the Labrador City fire's perimeter about four kilometres from the town.
Melissa Field, a meteorologist at the Gander weather office, said western Labrador is going to be cloudy Tuesday morning and then clear in the afternoon. The temperature is expected to reach a high of 22 C.
"We're not looking at a whole lot in terms of rainfall for them today, unfortunately. But it does seem like yesterday it was raining for a good chunk of the day, so hopefully that will help matters in the area as well."
She said Wednesday's forecast includes rain.
"I'm sure anything at this point will be helpful."
NDP Labrador West MHA Jordan Brown, who is in Wabush, which is under an evacuation alert, said he has seen a lot of water bombers in the air. Residents are anxious, he said, but are cheered by positive news about firefighting efforts.
"I'd say cautious optimism."
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With files from Alex Kennedy, The St. John’s Morning Show, Labrador Morning, and As It Happens