According to the mayor of Sept-Îles, Steve Beaupré, 3,000 to 4,000 people will have to evacuate their residences by 4:30 p.m.
The authorities note that the fire has spread at lightning speed and reached an area of 380 square kilometers on Friday morning. By way of comparison, the City of Montreal has an area of 365 square kilometres.
In Chapais, in Nord-du-Québec, where 800 people were evacuated, the fire has not yet reached the municipality. A major fire management team from the SOPFEU is hard at work to protect the city of more than 1600 inhabitants.
SOPFEU overwhelmed
According to the latest count of the SOPFEUat least 108 fires are raging in the forests of Quebec.
A number that could increase further, warns Stéphane Caron, spokesperson for SOPFEU due to yesterday’s storm lines which lit several new fires.
However, the regular capacities of the SOPFEU only allow it to fight approximately 30 fires simultaneously on Quebec territory.
The mandate of the SOPFEU in what’s called the Intensive Protection Zone, south of 50 or 51e parallel is to put out all the fires. At the moment, in the situation we are in, it is impossible. There are too many lights
explains Mr. Caron.
The workforce is therefore concentrated in priority in the sectors where infrastructures and communities are threatened by the advance of the fires, most of which are lit by human activity, specifies the spokesperson for the SOPFEU.
The two priorities of SOPFEU right now are the fires that threaten the cities of Chapais and Sept-Îles, explains Mr. Caron.
