The “out-of-control” wildfire near Miramichi, N.B., has continued to grow while a number of other wildfires have sprung up around the province, according to provincial numbers.
On Wednesday morning, New Brunswick’s Fire Watch website listed the Old Field Road wildfire near Miramichi as being 1,358 hectares in size — up from the 1,120 hectares reported on Tuesday morning.
While still a significant increase, it is far from the increase of 670 hectares reported between Tuesday morning and Monday afternoon.
“We don’t have a handle on (it) just yet but we have been successful at steering the trajectory of that fire,” Minister of Natural Resources John Herron told reporters on Wednesday afternoon.
The Old Field Road wildfire, which was first discovered on Aug. 6, is one of 16 active wildfires in the province, up from 13 on Tuesday.
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Of the active fires, 13 fall in the “being patrolled category” while the Slash Fire near the Maine border is said to be “under control.”
The only other “out-of-control” wildfire continues to be the 115 Pit wildfire which is burning near Irishtown.
“This fire has not grown,” Herron said. “We have a perimeter of of water and retardant around the Irishtown fire. We’re close there. We’re very optimistic.”
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On Monday, provincial officials said they were moving resources from Miramichi to the fire near Irishtown as it was burning in an area near 900 structures.
There were also 1,500 residents in the area which have been told by New Brunswick officials to be prepared to evacuate the area quickly.
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“We haven’t lost a structure in New Brunswick yet,” Herron said while knocking on wood. “And even with the Old Field fire, we’ve been able to steer that. Even the camps, we’ve saved them so far.”
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Provincial officials said Monday that they put out a call to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre for 60 more firefighters and a couple of waterbombers but those requests have only partially been answered.
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Twenty firefighters were set to arrive from Nova Scotia while Charlottetown and Maine had each sent five to support the cause.
“We still have that request in, I think it’s quite possible, quite probable that those additional firefighters may become available, but we’re essentially almost sharing resources,” Herron said.
He noted that those resources were being shared where they were needed the most.
“We have to be cognisant of that. We know that there’s a set of float planes that are water bombers that are en route to Newfoundland,” Herron explained. “They’ve got a tough situation there as well. So, we’re all we’re all trying to help each other.”
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He said that two water bombers that were on loan to New Brunswick from the CIFFC spent Tuesday in Nova Scotia but have since returned to help with the local cause.
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While they are still waiting for more planes, other aircraft are arriving to help with the situation.
“I mentioned that two attack helicopters are going to be based out of the Fleming Centre,” the minister said. “We have confirmed that we have two additional new helicopters coming on top of those.”
Help is also on the way in the form of some much-needed wet weather, according to the forecast, but Herron said it will take an immense rainfall of at least 50 mm to have an effect.
“It’s going to require help from the skies,” he said. “We have that window of opportunity, when things get dampened, we need to go at it and hopefully we’ll have some success.”
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