By Andrew Bates, Local Journalism Initiative
The minister of natural resources says the “whole machinery of government” kicked in to help as the province has whittled its count of wildfires from 39 to a handful.
The province was fighting two out-of-control wildfires on Wednesday, according to provincial statistics. That includes the Beaver Lake Stream fire about 60 kilometres west of Renous, which has been holding at 456 hectares, and a 0.1 ha fire southwest of Bathurst spotted Wednesday morning.
The Rocky Brook fire about 50 km south of Dalhousie is listed as contained at 204 ha, meaning its perimeter is being controlled, while the Old Field Road fire north of Miramichi is under patrol at 1,403 ha, meaning that the area is being monitored for hot spots and embers.
Herron said he went up in a plane with wildfire operations supervisor Tony Cole Tuesday to “take stock, take inventory in terms of the wildfire aftermath” and survey two larger fires.
“It’s extraordinarily impressive to see where there were a number of situations where structures that were at risk, that our firefighters were able to develop fire breaks … that saved a number of camps and houses,” he told Brunswick News Wednesday.
Fire breaks refer to clearings or barriers that may prevent fire from advancing. As an example, Herron said a communications tower in the Old Field Road fire area was left standing thanks to a fire wall built by responding crews.
Regarding the Beaver Lake Stream fire, Herron said “although we are making progress on that fire, we’re a little apprehensive” about whether the fire could still grow, a criteria for being marked out-of-control.
“So we’re very much looking forward to the rain this weekend,” he said.
He said that the Rocky Brook fire is in an “extraordinarily deep ravine gorge” and that it’s likely monitoring will continue “until the snow flies.”
“That’s one that we have contained, we’re working it essentially into a river,” Herron said. “We have a good fire break around it.”
He said he was told that the water bombers being used by Forest Protection Ltd. as well as CL-415s are able to “fly quite low” into the trench to get at the flames, which was “part and parcel” how fire crews got ahead of it.
The new small fire southwest of Bathurst, labelled 323, is in addition to another in the same area, 321, discovered Tuesday and marked as contained Wednesday at 0.1 ha. 318, which was spotted nearby on Monday, is now listed as out at 0.1 ha.
Herron said the province is still expecting to see “small fire events emerge almost on a continual basis” through to October because the forest floor remains “extraordinarily dry.”
He said the Fundy coast area in southern New Brunswick is among the province’s driest, but says it’s been “fortunate” not to see fire activity.
The minister said that cleanup on the Old Field Road fire would depend on how much fuel is left in the area. He said that the remainders can be like kindling and could catch fire again.
“If the Old Field fire had not occurred, we would have been into a slightly above normal fire season,” Herron said.
He said that the size of the fire, the Irishtown fire north of Moncton, which threatened homes, and the dry conditions have driven “a heightened attention on wildfires” this season.
“Huge accolades need to go to the women and men, those firefighters who kept New Brunswick communities and families safe,” Herron said, saying they brought it down from a height of 39 to the one major fire.
Herron cited the “whole machinery of government, from the Emergency Measures Group to the fire centre, the pilots, as well.”
He also complimented “the level of cooperation that we received from the opposition benches” in the legislature, saying that he had “iterative contact” with local MLAs across parties, as well as critics Kris Austin of the Progressive Conservatives and Megan Mitton of the Green Party.
“There really was a Team New Brunswick approach,” Herron said. “They were very helpful, I kept them informed in some situations on the daily.”
Austin said he appreciated that Herron and airplane operators Forest Protection Ltd. had offered a chance to see the fires “from an aerial perspective.”
“It is clear the response and dedication from various firefighting organizations played a critical role in there being no damage to property and no lives lost,” Austin said, also thanking New Brunswickers for their “willingness to take extra precaution during this very dry season.”
“I believe the past several years of government investment have contributed to our ability to get at these fires so quickly,” the Fredericton-Grand Lake MLA said in a statement Wednesday.
Megan Mitton, MLA for Memramcook-Tantramar, said that she had worked with Herron on a plan for Rockport, which is subject to a weight restriction on the Peck’s Cove Bridge limiting access to fire trucks.
“Minister Herron was helpful ensuring an emergency plan was in place in case a wildfire broke out there,” Mitton said in a statement Wednesday, saying she also passed along any reports of people violating burn bans.
“A lot of people worked hard to keep New Brunswickers safe as these fires raged on,” Mitton said, saying she watched as water bombers flew past to fill up in Shediac Cape multiple times an hour.
“The wildfires and drought this summer have highlighted the need for New Brunswick to not only be ready to respond but be proactive in addressing this risk, such as by ensuring we have diverse forests that are more resilient to fires.”
Herron also cited discussions with PC Miramichi East MLA Michelle Conroy as well as work by Jean Claude D’Amours, then minister of post-secondary, training and labour, on the response for those impacted economically.
“It really was, I would say, New Brunswick’s elected officials at their best,” he said.
A burn ban across New Brunswick remains in place.
