A massive wildfire near Miramichi, N.B., continues to be listed as out of control by provincial officials.
The Oldfield Road Fire, which was first detected on Aug. 6, has grown to around 1,402 hectares by Friday afternoon, according to Fire Watch, the province’s monitoring website.
“If you live in an impacted area, you should be prepared to evacuate on short notice,” Minister of Natural Resources John Herron told reporters on Friday.
The fire is one of 23 active fires throughout the province, including four that are said to be “out of control.”
In addition to the Oldfield Road Fire, the Beaver Lake Stream fire near Ramsay Lodge, the Green Brook near Newcastle Parish and the Chief’s Fire near Heath Steele were all deemed “out of control” on Friday afternoon.
The Chief’s Fire appears the most problematic as it has grown to around 25 acres in size since first being discovered on Wednesday afternoon.
“We’ve been able to able to contain (it) to a large degree but, that topography is very difficult,” Herron said.
He explained that the area is remote and there are ravines which are serving as obstacles to firefighters.
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There are eight fires listed as “being contained” as well as three of which are said to be “under control,” while a further six are “being patrolled.”
On Monday, provincial officials said they had requested 80 additional firefighters but by Wednesday, only 40 had arrived.
Five had come from P.E.I and Maine while another 20 came from Nova Scotia but those firefighters are headed back to help in their home province.
But more help is on the way, according to the minister.
“We do have 40 firefighters. These are higher-trained attack units,” he said. “Those firefighters are coming from the province of Ontario.”
In addition to the extra manpower, extra airpower may arrive over the weekend as well.
“We have, as part of our equipment, the addition of three CL215s. These are sort of like mid-sized water bombers,” he explained. “They’re heavily agile. Are highly, highly agile for us to be able to snuff out fires before they become even more problematic.”
The minister said they are expecting two more big water bombers to arrive in the coming days as well.
“That would make the count four,” Herron said. “And we have a very strong desire to have those four Super Scoopers to be really the key infrastructure that we will use to get … out in front of the fire at Old Field and so that we can get that one under control.”
Thus far no buildings have been damaged by the fires in New Brunswick but seven firefighters have suffered heat exhaustion.
— With files from The Canadian Press
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