The Long Lake wildfire broke out last month near the sparsely populated rural area which is part of Nova Scotia’s Annapolis County.HO/The Canadian Press
Three weeks after the Long Lake wildfire in western Nova Scotia forced evacuations and eventually destroyed 20 homes, fire officials say some evacuation orders will be lifted.
They say that of the almost 500 orders imposed on individual residences since Aug. 13, residents living at 360 civic addresses will be allowed to return home on Wednesday.
The officials could not say how many people would be affected, but said previously that more than 1,000 people in total had been told to evacuate their homes in recent weeks.
Natural Resources Department spokesman Jim Rudderham stressed that the decision to lift some orders could be reversed if the fire threatens those areas again.
Wildfire destroys 20 homes in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley
The fire broke out last month near Long Lake, a sparsely populated rural area about 20 kilometres south of Bridgetown, N.S., which is part of Nova Scotia’s Annapolis County.
Since then, the fire has continued to burn out of control amid drought-like conditions, but its advance to the east has been stalled by the creation of large fire breaks cut from the woods with heavy equipment.
As of this afternoon, the fire had grown to cover 84 square kilometres, but there were no new reports of damage.