Maritime wildfire officials prepare for 2024 following record-breaking 2023 season

Around 15 million hectares of land burned across Canada in 2023, more than doubling the previous record set 35 years ago of 6.7 million hectares.

A preprint report by Natural Resources Canada titled “Canada Under Fire – Drivers and Impacts of the Record-Breaking 2023 Wildfire Season” dives into what led to the devastating season that started in April and stretched into November.

Major factors identified include the average temperate in Canada from May to October was 2.2°C warmer then the average from 1991-2020, which promoted extreme fire weather conditions. A lack of snow combined with an early melt, long-term drought conditions in parts of the country, and the drought conditions combined with lighting activity are other factors believed to be the cause of a record setting year.

“While the Maritimes didn’t seem to have from mid-June onwards an extreme fire season, it was the spring that was very demanding on resources,” says Raphael Chavardes, who is a wildland fire research analyst and one of the many authors of the preprint report.

In 2023, 24,064 hectares of land burned in the Maritimes, the second-most area burned in a calendar year for the region since 1986.

Chavardes said fire analyst had always predicted wildfires happening on both the east and west coasts, but didn’t expect that to occur regularly until mid-century. He says it is important for Maritimers to prepare early for the fire season.

“I would recommend especially the fire smart website,” says Chavardes. There is a whole bunch of information and one of the things they stated is having an evacuation plan. You need to know where you are going to go before it happens.”

While 2023 had the second-largest amount of land burned since 1986 in the region, there were only three major fires that forced widespread evacuations.

Three hundred homes were evacuated in late May of 2023 near Bocabec, N.B., which did burn at least one home. Outside of the blaze, New Brunswick’s lead Wildfire Prevention Officer Roger Collet says there 50-60 less fires then average last year.

He is hopeful all the rain in the early goings of 2024 will help ease things into the wildfire season, which starts in New Brunswick on April 15.

“Even though we didn’t have a lot of snow we do have a lot of moisture,” Collet points out. “If that continues into the spring we should have a fairly quiet spring but that is hard to predict not knowing what the weather is going to truly be like.”

It’s a similar sentiment a province over in Nova Scotia, where a pair of major fires in late May and early June ravaged the province. The Barrington Lake fire was nearly 25,000 hectares alone, prompting evacuations of nearly 5,500 people.

A fire just outside of Halifax in Upper Tantallon was smaller in size, but was destructive burning over 200 building and at least 151 houses. It forced 16,400 people to flee from there homes, the fifth-largest fire related evacuation in Canada dating back to 1980.

“We have learned and everyone has learned from last year,” says Nova Scotia Fleet and Forest Protection director Jim Rudderham. “If it should happen again I’m quite confident we could do it again only with a little more experience now.”

Rudderham says the entire department was on the frontlines fighting the fires last year, something he says doesn’t normally happen.

He adds it is crucial for the public to follow burn bans and regulations to mitigate the risks of large spread blazes.

“There is science behind us asking people not to burn on certain days,” Rudderham says. “Follow that science and follow the lead, and anything you are doing outside be ready for anything to happen.”

Pam Lovelace is an HRM councillor for the Hammonds Plains area. She adds predictive mapping will be undertaken to try and better plan for the season, but says there is still concern in the community that is in the midst of rebuilding after last years destruction.

The councillor notes many of these communities were built decades ago, many of which only have one exit. It’s one of the reasons she wants to see an increased focus on fire prevention and plans for mass fires in the early goings on the season.

“We want people to have the knowledge on how to evacuate, when to evacuate, where to get accurate information,” Lovelace says. “We do need a coordinated response obviously, but quite frankly I think what we need is a coordinated prevention response first and foremost.”

The wildfire season in Nova Scotia runs from March 15 to October 15.