By The Canadian Press

Some 40 previously contained wildfires could become out of control: minister

Jun 21, 2023 | 9:08 AM

MONTREAL — Several Quebec communities were told to prepare to evacuate their homes on Wednesday, as the province’s forests minister warned that firefighters were on the verge of losing control of dozens of fires that were previously contained.

Maïté Blanchette Vézina told reporters that hot and dry conditions were fuelling the fires in many parts of the province, allowing some that were considered contained to regain strength. 

“What we announced, and what will probably happen in the next days is that fires that were contained — we’re talking about 40 contained fires — could go out of control,” she told reporters in Quebec City. 

Blanchette Vézina said the greatest areas of concern were the Lac-St-Jean region, north of Quebec City; northern Quebec; and the Abitibi region, in the province’s northwest. She said a fire that came to within 500 metres of Normétal, Que., 720 kilometres northwest of Montreal, was among those that were out of control, although the flames were spreading west toward the Ontario border, away from the community.

There was no rain in the forecast for the next four days in the most impacted sectors of the province, she said, adding that the flammability index — or risk of burning — could rise in several regions from “very high” to “extreme.”

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“The situation is critical for the next days, for as long as there is no major precipitation that falls,” she said. 

The province’s public security minister, François Bonnardel, said close to 1,000 people across the province had been evacuated or were expected to be asked to leave their homes or workplaces in the coming hours. Those people included residents of three sectors of the western Quebec city of Val-d’Or, as well as hundreds of vulnerable people who were expected to be evacuated from the Cree community of Mistissini on Wednesday.

Mistissini community leaders asked residents to monitor the radio and social media, saying a wider evacuation order could come during the day if the fire threatening a nearby road worsened.

The province said in an email on Wednesday that 1,982 workers and residents were listed as displaced — including 530 from a gold mine in the James Bay region and several hundred from Indigenous communities — although Val-d’Or was the only municipality with an official evacuation order in place as of early afternoon. 

Residents of the northern Quebec town of Lebel-sur-Quévillon, who only recently returned home, were warned that they may need to evacuate for a second time if the flames further threaten a major route in and out of the region.

Mayor Guy Lafrenière told residents Wednesday that smoke was making the air quality in town poor, and citizens who could leave were advised to do so. The town’s approximately 2,000 residents spent more than two weeks out of their homes because of the fires before being allowed home on Sunday.

Lafrenière said the town remained in a state of pre-alert and new evacuations could be ordered if Highway 113 would be cut off by fire either north or south of the town.

“We have to be ready to evacuate at any moment,” he said in a video message. “For citizens who are ready, and who have a place to go, we recommend you go there as of today.”

Meanwhile, Hydro-Québec announced it was evacuating about 190 workers from a pair of hydro stations in northern Quebec as a preventive measure. A spokesman for the utility said the LG-3 and LG-4 stations weren’t at risk from fire but flames could cut off the only road linking the two facilities. Some employees would remain on site to ensure the facilities continue to operate, Francis Labbé said.

The province’s forest fire prevention agency, known as SOPFEU, said there were 110 forest fires in the province as of midday Wednesday, including about 20 that were considered out of control.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 21, 2023.

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press