A salutary rain fell on the forest fires near Port-Cartier and Sept-Îles on Wednesday, giving a welcome helping hand to firefighters from the Société de protection des forests against fire. While the fires have grown in recent days, other favorable conditions are looming on the horizon.
Indeed, a rainy weekend is expected in the MRC of Sept-Rivières, according to Environment Canada. 20 to 30 millimeters of rain could sprinkle the north coastal fires between Saturday and Sunday.
This is more than the ten millimeters that fell in the region on Wednesday, according to estimates by Environment Canada meteorologist Simon Legault. It also signals the arrival of cooler weather in the coming days, which could also help the fight against SOPFEU against fires.
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The fires near Port-Cartier which forced the evacuation of 1,000 of its residents on Friday are still not under control, despite the rain. (Archive photo)
Photo : Denise Ricard
Despite this beneficial grayness, the firefighters still have some time to go in the region, warns Isabelle Gariépy, prevention and communications officer for the SOPFEU. Nearly 260 of its employees are assigned near Sept-Îles and Port-Cartier, where three forest fires are still not under control.
We still have a little bit left.
In the afternoon on Wednesday, a clearance allowed the planes of the SOPFEU to fly over the fires again, after being prevented from doing so by low cloud cover. They took the opportunity to observe the fires from above, so as to develop new strategies to fight them.
The City of Port-Cartier warns that air quality is expected to be poor in the coming days. The state of emergency is maintained there, as is the pre-alert evacuation of the Gallix and Lac-Labrie sectors in Sept-Îles.
The Labrador fires are felt on the North Shore
Power outages in western Labrador territory pushed several Labrador City residents across the border on Tuesday. They came to Fermont to stock up on gas and food at the town’s only gas station, following the power outage caused by the evacuation of the Churchill Falls hydroelectric power station.
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The wildfire threatening Churchill Falls has caused a power outage for all Hydro Newfoundland and Labrador customers in western Labrador.
Photo: Government of Newfoundland and Labrador
We had a queue of about half a kilometer to fill up!
, says Martin St-Laurent, the mayor of Fermont. According to him, this influx of customers forced the gas station to cease sales on Wednesday, the time to restock.
It’s strange to say, but the police were forced to do traffic management.
Not far from there, the mining IOC is practically deprived of electricity and its production is suspended, according to a spokesperson. The company, however, ensures that the rail network is functioning and that maintenance activities continue.
With information from Michèle Bouchard
