Firefighters from Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview are battling a new wildfire north of the Irishtown Nature Park near Moncton.
The rural community of Maple Hills, which includes Irishtown, has posted on its Facebook page that it is asking some residents to “take immediate steps to prepare for a possible evacuation.” There is no evacuation order yet, but they are urging people to have personal belongings and pets ready to go.
The areas most at risk, according to a map posted by the community are those between Cape Breton Road to the North, Weisner Road to the east, Elmwood Drive to the west and Roma Way to the south.
As of 5 p.m. AT, the fire near McArthur Lane spanned 30 hectares and was listed as out of control, according to the provincial fire data dashboard. The fire was not listed earlier in the afternoon.
Pictures show heavy smoke in the area and the Moncton Firefighters Association is asking people to stay away.
“Please avoid the area to allow safe access for emergency vehicles and water shuttle operations,” said the association on Facebook.
Renelle Lanteigne, who lives on Cape Breton Road in the Municipality of Maple Hills, said she was camping at her trailer in Shediac, but returned home to prepare in case her family needs to evacuate.
“We have many people with farms here with horses and all kind of farms, and people are kind of starting to freak out because they don’t know if they have to evacuate their horses and cows and all that,” she said.
Near Miramichi, three homes and a cottage are under an evacuation order and another 15 homes are under an alert due to the wildfire burning on Oldfield Road.
New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources spokesperson Nick Brown said in an email that no one was home at the four properties when the evacuation order was issued.
The province’s fire data dashboard says the Oldfield Road fire now spans 340 hectares.
Brown said it is difficult to measure the exact size of the fire as smoke has lead to reduced visibility. The fire was first detected on Wednesday.
“It did jump Highway 8 and burned about 20 hectares,” said Brown on Sunday.
The section of Highway 8 between Route 450 and Oldfield Road remains closed.
Miramichi Mayor Adam Lordan said the last update he received on the fire, at approximately 1 p.m., showed it was “moving in the opposite direction of the city.”
“Thankfully it’s not in an area close to any communities,” he said.
Lordan said firefighters were patrolling the river to make sure no boaters were in the way of the water bombers, as they swooped down to refill. He said the city’s Lord Beaverbrook Arena is offering a place for firefighters to stay, in partnership with the Red Cross.
New Brunswick’s Natural Resources Minister John Herron said at a news conference on Saturday the fire was “beyond control.”
He said fire conditions are so extreme that “under the current environment it doesn’t matter what we throw at it.”
The Oldfield Road fire is one of 12 fires burning in the province, according to the fire data dashboard. A fire near Canterbury in Carleton County was brought under control Sunday afternoon.
On Sunday morning, Brown said it spanned about five hectares with 40 firefighters on scene.
The dashboard says nine of the fires are now being patrolled. According to Brown that is the final step before a fire is considered extinguished.
The New Brunswick government has banned access to all Crown land, restricting fishing, camping, hiking, driving into the woods or using the trail systems.
Camping is only allowed on campgrounds and the government has requested private landowners also comply with the restrictions.
“Going back to data as far back as 1986, we have not had a drying situation as severe as we have today,” Herron said at Saturday’s announcement. “This is a serious situation.”
