A group of firefighters in Lunenburg County, N.S., are breathing a deep sigh of relief after “quick actions” prevented a dangerous situation from worsening amid a gruelling heat wave this week.
Melanie Langille, volunteer fire chief with the Walden Fire Department, said she was working on Tuesday when a young man arrived on her steps and urged her to call 911 — as he couldn’t access cellphone service in the small community.
“He said, ‘There’s a woods fire,’” she said, adding that the man was working on building a road at the time and was attempting to move a rock with his excavator when a spark ignited.
“He quickly grabbed a fire extinguisher and ran back to put the fire out. At the same time, he was trying to call 911 but (there was) no cell service.”
Langille said the man travelled about two kilometres, in his truck, out of the woods in the Walden area to notify her of the fire and find help.
At first, it was difficult for her crew of volunteer firefighters to determine the exact location of the fire — but Langille’s co-worker had an idea of where the blaze occurred.
“I just ran to the house and grabbed my trunked mobile radio and radioed our dispatch,” she said.
Following that, a small crew of responders decided to divide and conquer — as Langille’s co-worker took her vehicle to patrol the suspected area in hopes of locating the flames. At the same time, responding members of the volunteer fire department in Walden joined the ongoing search.
“We got a couple more people with vehicles to go back through. There are various roads back there,” she said.
Lunenburg County, like many other areas in the province, was under a heat warning at the time. Temperatures climbed to about 35 C with a humidex value of 41 on Thursday.
Langille said fire crew members in the immediate vicinity left their respective jobs to respond to the fire.
Once her crew was finally able to locate the blaze, Langille knew she had to call for backup.
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“When I arrived at the scene, you could see it (the fire) veer off and go out into the woods, starting to go up into the trees,” she said.
“It gets a little nerve-wracking but as each voice started coming across the radio (and) you knew they were coming, you calm down and then get situated … looking over to see where truck needs to be put, where our water sources are going to come from.”
From there, the responding fire departments were able to co-ordinate and extinguish the developing fire before the situation worsened.
Of the 20 volunteer members associated with the Walden Fire Department, Langille said 16 were available to respond this week.
“Our team, they work hard together. Being a small rural fire department, you don’t have a lot of funding,” she said.
Langille said the man who alerted first responders of the developing fire deserves “all the credit.”
“His quick actions saved the whole thing, for it to turn out as good as it did,” she said. “He went back to get the fire knocked as best as he could. He got it limited before he came out. He did a phenomenal job.”
‘High to extreme’ fire hazard risk
Kara McCurdy, of Halifax Fire, said Nova Scotia was classified to be at “high to extreme” risk for fire hazards on Thursday — with a minimal probability of precipitation over the weekend.
“Over the past couple weeks, we’ve had complaints about campfire pits just randomly put in our wilderness areas or on trails,” McCurdy said during an interview with Global News on Thursday. “We’re asking people not to do that.
“We’ve had a lot of those fire pits, in extreme dry heat, where the fire escapes and can burn underneath the pit itself and into the roots and trees. It doesn’t take much for it to start a wildfire.”
As of Friday afternoon, burning was not permitted in many areas throughout the province — while some locations, including Halifax, are only permitted to burn between 7 p.m. and 8 a.m. These restrictions are updated at 2 p.m. daily.
During periods of extreme humidity, which was experienced through the Maritimes this week, McCurdy said bark mulch, deep piles of grass and dry vegetation are capable of spontaneously combusting. She advised people to avoid igniting any flames in these environments.
In addition to Halifax residents being able to receive a wildfire risk assessment on their home, McCurdy said there are steps homeowners can take to reduce the risk of damage in the instance of a wildfire.
“Make sure zero to 1.5 metres around your home is completely non-combustible. So, if there is a wildfire, you want to make sure you minimize the impact a fire can have,” she said.
“What causes a home to burn are those tiny little fire embers travelling in the wind, landing on your gutter that you didn’t clean this year, deck furniture cushions or another susceptible area, like piled grass or bark mulch.”
— with files from Skye Bryden-Blom
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