Forest Fire In Halifax

Halifax is burning...well not exactly Halifax, but right now there is a pretty big forest fire burning in the Spryfield, Herring Cove area of the Halifax Regional Municipality. It's a bad fire, several houses have burned, I think the number is around 10 or 12 at the moment. Some folks got out just in the nick of time. It's estimated that about 1000 people have been evacuated from 300 homes in Spryfield.


The fire is quite intense, this picture, which doesn't do it justice, is a picture of the forest fire over the Halifax skyline. This was taken about 10 p.m. from the Dartmouth side of the Halifax Harbour, from the overpass on the Circumferential Highway heading toward Woodside.

Halifax Regional Municipality spokeswoman Shaune MacKinlay said HRM has set up a relief centre at the Captain William Spry Centre, The Red Cross is there to help those evacuated and stranded.

There are around 100 fire crews on the job now, fighting the fire, which some have described as several fires within an area. The fire is moving quickly which is hampering attempts to contain it. There are helicopters dropping water and three fixed wing planes from New Brunswick are on their way, or are probably here by now. They are water tankers and can carry a lot of water.

One of the problems around here with forest fires is the large amount of dead branches and brush left in the woods since the devastating Hurricane Juan hit the Halifax area several years ago. Now all the trees that blew down during the hurricane and died are laying on the forest floor rotting, but before they rot they dry out into what has become excellent tinder and fuel for a fire.

Here is a video from this afternoon showing some of the smoke from the fire across the Halifax skyline.


The weather forecast is predicting a chance of showers or rain tomorrow and the next couple of days, for once, I hope the forecast of rain is correct....

Pray for rain.....