Badger wildfire still contained after hard-fought weekend

Fire crews held the line at the wildfire in central Newfoundland over the weekend, despite some challenging conditions.

Craig Coady is director of Newfoundland and Labrador's wildfire response program. He says the weather looks to be cooperating going forward, but that wasn't the case Saturday.

"Winds were actually gusting up to 70 kilometers per hour, which is quite high obviously," said Coady. 

Despite the high winds, Coady says suppression efforts have continued to succeed thanks to the crews still fighting the active wildfire.

"The containment lines that we had put in place all held, and the fire did not grow beyond its boundary yesterday, which was real positive given the high winds."

With rain in the forecast over the next few days, Coady is optimistic.

"Hopefully we do get that precipitation and if we do that, it'll all obviously just be a help to us and we'll continue to decrease the fire behaviour going forward."

Helpful rain in the forecast

The province lifted the evacuation order for Badger on Friday, allowing residents to return home.

Since that time Coady says the fire has lessened in intensity. And while there's still some smoke, the same winds that made things tricky on Saturday are now keeping the smoke away from the community.

"I'd like to reassure people in Badger that the risk to the community, like we said a couple days ago, is significantly diminished," said Coady. "We're quite comfortable that the fire isn't going to impact the community on that northern edge." 

As of Sunday, the fire is estimated to be as large as 1,119 hectares and is still considered an active and out of control wildfire.

Water bombers have been made available for dispatch from Gander, with 3 helicopters also in use and 43 forestry personnel on the ground. Coady said people shouldn't be too worried if they still see water bombers and helicopters in the area.

"We still continue our operations, but certainly the risk to the folks in Badger is significantly diminished," said Coady.

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