It’s been nearly seven months since a forest fire ignited just outside the coastal community of Saint Andrews. It would grow to nearly 540 hectares — and exceed New Brunswick’s 10-year average for area burned all by itself
The fire started when an all-terrain vehicle caught fire and quickly spread. Crews battled it from the ground and the air, dumping water and fire retardant.
Homes in Bocabec and Chamcook were evacuated, with many residents staying with friends and family. One family lost their home and all their belongings but there were no injuries.
But forest ranger Roger Collet said this year’s fire season was fairly mild in comparison to the last major season in 2020, despite the magnitude of the Saint Andrews fire.
“We had 200 fires this year, most of them, I would say almost 50 per cent of them, were less than a point-one of a hectare. So, small,” he said in an interview on Friday. “Causes could be, you know, someone having a small fire and it got away from them. Or maybe a fire was left unattended. Someone called (the fire) in, and we went to put it out. We got a lot of those.”
In total, 856.4 hectares burned in New Brunswick this year, almost double the 10-year average of 453.4 hectares.
There were 200 fires, the same number for the 2023 season, but only 165.7 hectares burned last year. There were 65 fires in the eastern region and 135 fires in the western region.
Collet said science enables the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development to understand the circumstances that might lead to a severe forest fire season.
He explained the conditions were dry in 2020. In fact, a report by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire said the province’s 2020 season was busiest in 20 years.
“In 2020, New Brunswick experienced 462 fires that burned 1,388 (hectares) of forest land,” the report said. “During the 2020 season, the largest wildfire in the province was approximately 850 hectares.”
Collet said spring is the riskiest time off year, despite the belief that because the snow has just melted that the ground is wet.
“It’s very deceiving,” he said. “But it doesn’t take much to dry up. Dead leaves, dead grass, things like that, dries up quickly.”
In comparison to massive wildfires across the rest of the country, Collet said New Brunswick is did well. “We were pretty lucky in that we haven’t really had severe dryness as we’ve seen in some other provinces.”
He added that while forest fire season might be over, it is important to be prepared for next year. Collet said people must understand the risks.
The Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development publishes an online fire watch, which indicates whether burning is permitted during the season.