CITYnews halifax: Mooseland Road wildfire continues into the weekend, fire and emergency responding

CITYnews halifax / By Emma Amodio

A new update as of 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 18 confirms that the wildfires at Mooseland Road by Sixth Lake, Halifax County continue to blaze out of control.

The fire is currently estimated to be 1386 hectares and is still out of control. This is down from 1700 acres yesterday, a more accurate estimate due to better mapping of the fire. Mooseland Road remains closed to traffic, beginning at the intersection of Highway 7 and Mooseland Road, and people are advised to avoid the area.

Fire and emergency services continue to respond: two DNR helicopters and four-fixed wing water bombers are assigned to the fire along with two fixed-wing water bombers from Newfoundland.

Firefighters on site include 25 DNR and 45 Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency firefighters. According to Halifax Professional Firefighters, this will be the last update unless conditions change significantly.

Fire discovered Thursday, residents told to evacuate

The Jacket Lake wildfire grew from an estimated four hectares in size when it was first discovered to around 1,700 hectares on July 17. Addresses from 4315 Mooseland Rd. down to Highway 7 were told to evacuate Thursday, July 16 around 9:00 p.m.

Crews have been battling the out-of-control blaze that was first sparked in a “hard-to-access” area of the county. Halifax Professional Fire Fighters, the union for Halifax Fire and Emergency Services personnel, said that on Thursday afternoon the flames spread to the south and east, crossing Mooseland Road.

Those leaving their homes can register at evacuation centres at Musquodoboit Rural High School (11980 Hwy. #224) and Marine Drive Academy (479 Church Point Rd.)

While there is no rain in the forecast for Saturday, Rudderham and the teams are looking for precipitation to come by the end of the weekend, hopefully providing some relief from the fires.

“The system on Sunday that we’re looking at, it looks like it’s probably going to bring a significant amount of precipitation, and models range right now between about 15 to 30 mm for that specific area,” Robichaud explained.

According to DNR, there are 25 personnel from the province, 31 volunteer firefighters and members from Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Services.

Officials from DNR noted that there have been more than 100 wildfires this year in Nova Scotia, double the number of incidents at this time last year.

Last year’s wildfire season saw deep drought in the province’s interior sparking fires from lightening that burned well into the fall.

Rudderham said that Nova Scotia is not drier than this time last year, “But I think we’re building to where we were last year.”

With files from Natasha O’Neill