Wildfire in Nova Scotia’s Shelburne County still out of control: DNRR

A wildfire in Nova Scotia’s Shelburne County is still out of control, according to the provincial Department of Natural Recourses and Renewables (DNRR).

DNRR provided its latest update on Twitter Monday evening, saying the fire in Little Harbour, N.S., is 25 per cent contained.

Little Harbour, Shelburne Co. update (6:18pm): wildfire out of control, 25% contained, & est. at 56.5ha. 31 DNRR staff, 23 vol. firefighters & 2 helicopters on site. Staff will work until dark & return in the morning. Barring a major change, see next update here 8:30-9:30am Tues. pic.twitter.com/OvT9azAF5f

— Natural Resources and Renewables (@NS_DNRR) May 15, 2023

The wildfire was originally estimated to be 10 hectares in size.

The province said Monday morning it is actually 56.5 hectares, though the wildfire has not grown.

"The original size estimate was done with a lot of smoke in the area, which made it difficult to measure accurately," read a DNRR tweet.

Municipality of Shelburne CAO Warren MacLeod was told by the local fire department Sunday night that the fire was contained, but winds shifted to an unfavourable position by the morning.

Scott Tingley, DNRR manager of forest protection, told CTV News Monday afternoon crews were dealing with flareups caused by the winds, low humidity and dry forest.

“We’ll have a better idea this evening as the weather cools down and the wind backs off a bit to see if the fire has changed very much, but certainly concerned just with how dry it is and how windy it is," he said.

FIRE BEGAN SUNDAY

The fire first broke out Sunday afternoon, with DNRR staff, helicopters, and volunteer firefighters from Lockeport, Little Harbour, Shelburne and Sable River responding.

As of Monday evening, 31 DNRR staff, 23 volunteer firefighters and two helicopters were on site.

#DNRR helicopter gathering and dropping more water on the #LittleHarbour fire. ⁦@CTVAtlantic⁩ pic.twitter.com/YowT0iGqSx

— Jonathan MacInnis (@macinnisCTV) May 15, 2023

DNRR says it will provide another update on the status of the fire Tuesday morning.

There is still no word on what caused the wildfire. 

EVACUATIONS

Seventeen people had to be evacuated from several seasonal homes and cottages in the area as a precaution Sunday afternoon.

“We just grabbed a lot of clothing and our valuables and stuff and threw it all in (the car),” said Jennifer Black, who was among those evacuated.

“When I did see the fire, I started gathering papers, started gathering all that together, but when we knew we had to evacuate that was the last minute -- extra socks, clothes, throw it all in a hamper and just get out."

“Our first responders, I can’t thank them enough for saving our point,” she added. “They saved us all, they saved all the homes, so yeah, kudos, they’re awesome.” 

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