Emergency crews continue to fight wildfire east of Churchill Falls
Fire is moving east, away from the town
As emergency crews continue to fight an out of control wildfire burning near Churchill Falls, Labrador, the Department of Forestry is reminding people to be extra cautious as the province enters wildfire season early.
"When you have those conditions as we saw yesterday, it doesn't take much for either a new fire to get going or for a portion or section of this fire to pick up in activity," said Craig Coady, the forestry department's wildfire program director.
The Newfoundland and Labrador active wildfire dashboard shows the fire is estimated to be roughly 170 hectares.
In a statement on Thursday afternoon, Forestry Minister Lisa Dempster said two fires merged into one, which is actively burning one kilometre east of Churchill Falls on the north side of the Trans-Labrador Highway.
Coady said winds are currently blowing the fire away from the community, leaving a smouldering ground fire which allows crews to get water on hot spots farther in the woods.
"The risk to Churchill Falls itself and N.L. Hydro infrastructure is actually decreasing today," he said, adding that the fire is still considered out of control because of dry weather conditions.
"We do have some favourable weather coming in the forecast, so we will certainly be analyzing that on a go-forward basis," Coady said.
On Thursday afternoon, Dempster said her department assigned local forest firefighters and 10 additional firefighters to the incident.
In an update posted on Facebook, Dempster said two helicopters are providing air support to the incident and two water bombers are on standby, while Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro has deployed resources to support the suppression effort.
At this time, the Trans-Labrador Highway remains open, and the Churchill Falls emergency operations centre (EOC) remains activated. There are no known power outages right now.
Fire moving
The fire, according to the Forestry Department, is moving east, away from the town and infrastructure in the area.
In a community update, Hydro said emergency ground crews and helicopters are working to identify hot spots. Temperatures are expected to cool on Friday with showers in the forecast.
Phone lines are out of service at the Churchill Falls community building and surrounding facilities, said Hydro.
The town's clinic is open and can be reached at 709-925-3381. Emergency services can be reached by calling 709-735-0092 or 911.
In an early morning update, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary said that traffic is able to pass on the Trans-Labrador Highway, east of the community, after closing a stretch of the road Wednesday evening.
The RNC said it will continue to monitor risk to public safety.
Meanwhile, the Town of Happy Valley-Goose Bay issued a fire ban early Wednesday morning. The town's fire department says it will be keeping an eye on the conditions and will have an update with the ban is lifted.
There was a brief power outage in Churchill Falls on Wednesday evening, along with towns in Labrador West. Hydro said the reason was because it had to switch the town's power distribution to another feeder after a pole line was damaged and taken out of service.
The company said power lines into Labrador City and Wabush remain in service and it will continue to monitor the situation closely. An update is expected later on Thursday.
Churchill Falls resident reflects
Churchill Falls resident Robert Dawe posted videos of the fire on social media as the situation worsened Wednesday night.
On Thursday morning, Dawe told CBC News he didn't sleep well and is still feeling anxious.
"I was feeling sick to my stomach. My knees were weak. I was anxious, but I felt that I needed to capture [this] as safely as I could," he said.
Dawe said he was driving home Wednesday when he saw a fire truck go by.
"So I knew something was up. And when I looked to my right at the stop sign, I [saw] smoke above town right there," he said.
Dawe followed the fire truck, pulled over in a safe spot and started recording, he said. He posted videos to social media throughout Wednesday evening in an effort to help other residents stay up-to-date on the fire.
He says they were lucky the wind blew the fire away from town. While the fire did get close to the Churchill Falls power plant, Dawe said water bombers stopped it from travelling much further.
"We had a lot of people in a very short period of time here fighting it, doing their best to try to get it out," said Dawe.
It was only a year ago when Churchill Falls residents were evacuated due to an out of control wildfire.
Dawe says Wednesday's ordeal brought back the not-so-distant memories. This time around, he was well-prepared.
"Always be planned and ready to go on a moment's notice. Keep your vehicle fuelled up. Keep your valuables close by. [Have] a little to go bag ready to go. You don't know what's gonna happen," he said.
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With files from Labrador Morning