By Andrew Bates, Local Journalism Initiative
The province’s burn ban has been dropped to a fire restriction between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. in all counties.
New Brunswick’s Fire Watch page displays an updated burn map, taking effect Monday evening, with burning permitted from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. The province had been under a burn ban since the beginning of August, as dry conditions saw firefighters contending with more than 30 wildfires across the province.
Natural Resources Minister John Herron said the province saw a series of days with “helpful” added humidity, plus an “abundance of rain” over the weekend that helped the transition.
“We said all along that we could revisit … allowing essentially the equivalent to a backyard bonfire,” Herron said Tuesday.
He said they had been considering going from red to yellow regionally in areas such as the northwest, but the added rain helped make it a province-wide switch.
“Having said that, if we get a string of days that are dry again, the same precautions that we had with respect to a burn ban can be reinstated,” Herron said, encouraging people to be “extra vigilant but enjoy these last days of summer evenings.”
On Tuesday, firefighters were tackling one out of control fire, the Beaver Lake Stream fire about 60 kilometres west of Renous, which remains at 456 hectares in size. The Rocky Brook fire about 50 km south of Dalhousie is listed as contained at 204 ha, and six others are being monitored for hotspots.
Small fires are still emerging, with a 0.1 hectare wildfire south of Pokemouche on the Acadian Peninsula appearing Monday evening and downgraded to being patrolled by Tuesday morning.
Crews in Moncton were fighting a fire Sunday labelled 332, south of Highway 2 between Elmwood Drive and Harrisville Boulevard, which was downgraded to being patrolled at one hectare by 1 p.m. Monday, according to the province’s dashboard.
In Fredericton, firefighters responded early Saturday to a fire in a wooded area south of Knowledge Park Drive which was brought under control at roughly a hectare in size, according to the Fredericton Fire Department.
“That just reinforces the fact that we’re going to continue to be vigilant throughout this fall season … likely into October, where we expect the forest to be much drier than it would be this time last year,” Herron told Brunswick News Sunday.
Herron said that in urban settings, he gives “accolades to the local fire departments who quite often are the first responders in these situations.”
“We’re always concerned if we have visibility, there’s a spark where it’s adjacent to structures and homes,” Herron said.
Moncton Fire Department platoon chief Paul Bruens said that firefighters received a report of a fire from a passing motorist after 5 p.m. Saturday.
He said firefighters left the woods after sunset and then returned the next morning, with six firefighters and two staff from the province.
Bruens said the wet weather over the weekend helped, but there was fire in the underbrush in an area about 100 square metres by 300 square meters.
“It was in a controlled area, we had a line around it,” he said, saying the fire was contained but “not totally out.”
He said crews worked “extremely hard” to get at the blaze for 10 hours Sunday and that crews were due to return Monday to check on what remained.
Firefighters in Fredericton responded after receiving a call at 12:21 a.m. Saturday of “smoke and flames in a wooded area,” responding with three engines, a brush truck and a total of 14 firefighters and command staff, according to city fire and EMO spokesperson Justin McGuigan.
“Crews worked aggressively to attack and surround the fire, which was declared under control at 2:23 a.m.,” McGuigan said in an email Tuesday. He said the province was called in to help with assessment and some staff remained on scene Tuesday.
“The fire was limited to a wooded area, with no structures involved,” he said.
Herron said a subset of water bombers are at the ready to “tamp down” any fire as quickly as possible, with a goal of responding in the first 30 minutes.
The minister said that the province has the most resources on the Beaver Lake Stream fire, and are “still making progress.”
“The fire’s not growing, the perimeter is being established,” Herron said.
He said the fire is “quite isolated,” which has made it “really tricky” to get equipment in, although crews have built some road infrastructure to make it easier.
“It’s still a lot of work to get in to beat that fire down,” Herron said.
Herron said the weekend’s rain came down in an ideal form: “a light rain mist” at a constant rate.
“It’s not a big deluge you get all at once that could create isolated soft condition that can potentially get equipment stuck,” Herron said Sunday. “If we could order more rain like we’ve seen for the last 24 hours, that would be ideal.”
The burn ban was followed by forestry restrictions and an all-out ban on entering Crown lands starting Aug. 10 as conditions worsened, with Crown lands opening again Aug. 26.
“We would not have got here as well as we did” without the public’s cooperation, Herron said Tuesday. “New Brunswickers understood that we needed to follow the precautions that we had in place, those precautions were followed by New Brunswickers to the Nth degree, and we’re all thankful for that.”
