A water bomber drops water onto a wildfire burning in the Paddy's Pond area just outside St. John's on Wednesday.Elling Lien/The Canadian Press
With its frequent fog, rainstorms and snow squalls barrelling in from the Atlantic Ocean, Newfoundland and Labrador has long been known as a place with unpredictable weather. But until recently, dangerously hot and dry summers weren’t something people had to worry about.
As unprecedented wildfires chase thousands from their homes in the eastern part of the province, Newfoundlanders are concerned that their usually damp island is entering new territory.
“I’ve never seen Newfoundland so dry in my life,” said Ed MacDonald, 66, who fled his home in Kingston almost two weeks ago and has had to evacuate two of the residences where he’s been staying as the fires have raged closer to urban areas.
“I never could have imagined what’s happening. We’ve never seen fires like this. You look down the shore, and you see the whole horizon is just smoke. It’s unbelievable.”
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On Wednesday, officials in Newfoundland and Labrador declared a regional state of emergency in communities along its eastern shore, and took the unusual step of banning all-terrain vehicles on forested roads as crews grapple with five out-of-control wildfires across the province.
Newfoundlanders are grappling with one of the hottest, driest summers in memory in Atlantic Canada, which has also led authorities in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to ban some outdoor activities and prohibit people from entering Crown lands.
There have already been 214 wildfires in Newfoundland and Labrador so far this year, nearly twice the annual average, according to government statistics. Rainfall amounts recorded at the St. John’s International Airport in June and July were roughly half what they normally are and there has been no rain recorded at all for two weeks.
Eddie Sheerr, a meteorologist based in St. John’s, said the conditions for these out-of-control wildfires were laid over the winter, when unusually low levels of snow and rain left the land drier than normal. This summer, temperatures have often soared into the 30s, very un-Newfoundland-like weather that has set the stage for blazes that have destroyed dozens of homes in their path – although thick smoke has made it difficult for crews to make an accurate tally of the destruction.
“When you combine dry air with low humidity and really hot days and windy conditions, and Newfoundland is always windy, that’s the three perfect ingredients for wildfire potential to be extreme,” he said.
Newfoundland wildfire evacuees face loss and uncertainty as flames destroy homes across province
Wildfires are more common in Newfoundland and Labrador’s sparsely populated central region, but not near its eastern coastal areas. The largest fire, in the Kingston area, covers more than 64 square kilometres, while dozens of others have sprung up around it, sometimes in the same place only days apart. That’s fuelled suspicions that some of the blazes have been started by people.
“The rumour mill is alive and well,” Mr. Sheerr said. “I’m not trying to wear a conspiracy hat here, but some of them have not been naturally caused, because they’ve started, you know, days and days after we had our last lightning strike.”
Water bombers, meanwhile, helped slowed the growth of a wildfire threatening St. John’s, but the flames are still burning out of control, officials said.
Premier John Hogan told a briefing in the province’s capital that the government had to introduce a ban on all-terrain vehicles on forested roads, after previously saying it wasn’t a good idea, because the fires have been so persistent.
Officials have asked thousands of people in and around Newfoundland and Labrador’s largest city to be ready to flee a roaring wildfire at a moment’s notice. Sharlene Johnson, who lives in Conception Bay South near St. John’s, says the situation is terrifying.
The Canadian Press
On Tuesday, officials ordered the evacuation of parts of a suburb of St. John’s threatened by a fire roughly 15 kilometres south of the city. Thousands of others within the metropolitan area remain under an evacuation alert, which requires residents to be prepared to flee at a moment’s notice – an unprecedented wildfire watch for the province’s largest city.
Mr. MacDonald, currently settled in Carbonear, said it’s been an “emotional roller coaster” picking up and fleeing with pets every few days and not knowing if his home back in Kingston is still standing. Houses belonging to his mother, cousin and neighbours in his hometown have already been reduced to ashes.
“It’s like somebody burned down my mother’s house with a giant blowtorch. There’s not even enough left to make a toothpick,” he said.
With a report from The Canadian Press