Ground crews to start attacking Labrador City fire, national help limited

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This article was published 16/07/2024 (781 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LABRADOR CITY, N.L. – Ground crews were preparing on Tuesday to begin their attack against a roaring wildfire near Labrador City that forced thousands of people to evacuate last week, officials said.

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey said crews were on the ground doing preliminary work around the perimeter of the fire, while water bombers from the province and Quebec doused it from above.

New Brunswick has also promised assistance, Furey said. But as fires burn across the country, it’s been hard to get more help.

“The entire country right now is experiencing significant threat from forest fires,” Furey said during a video call from Halifax, where he is attending meetings with the country’s premiers. “As a result, the national supply of suppression and mitigation and fighting assets and human resources is more limited than it would be normally.”

Labrador City is home to about 7,450 people and is the second community in the region to be evacuated because of forest fires in as many months. Residents were told leave on Friday evening and drive six hours east to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, where Furey said more than 6,000 evacuees have checked in with emergency services teams.

The fire is burning about six kilometres west of the town, and about one kilometre away from its landfill, Furey said. The blaze has grown from six square kilometres at the end of last week to 140 square kilometres on Tuesday, he said.

Labrador City is near the provincial boundary with Quebec, and the nearby towns of Fermont, Que. and Wabush, N.L., are on evacuation alert in case the fire gets any closer.

All three mines in the area — Montreal-based Champion Iron Ltd. in Fermont, Que.; Toronto-based Iron Ore Co. of Canada in Labrador City; and Minnesota-based Tacora Resources Inc. in Wabush — are temporarily shut down.

Last month, about 750 residents and workers fled Churchill Falls, as a wildfire crept closer to the town. They were allowed to return earlier this month.

Labrador City Mayor Belinda Adams officially declared a state of emergency Monday evening.

“We are doing this to ensure safety and to seek additional support to maintain our essential services and to protect our assets,” Adams said in a video on social media.

People in Wabush must go to Labrador City for groceries and gas, and municipal officials have arranged busses to take them there.

In Halifax, Furey said the premiers were talking about the fires across the country, and how to best prepare for and fight them. He wants to set up a firefighting training and response centre in central Newfoundland that could serve all of Atlantic Canada, he said.

Newfoundland and Labrador has imposed a ban on all outdoor fires across the province as all of its crews and equipment are tied up in Labrador. Forestry Minister Elvis Loveless, who joined Furey on the video call, said the ban remains in place despite a few protesting emails he said he had received from “passionate campers.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 16, 2024.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said the fire covered roughly 14 square kilometres. In fact, it covered roughly 140 square kilometres.