A sign directing evacuees is seen as volunteers and workers set up an evacuation centre where food and shelter is being provided for those forced from their homes due to the wildfire burning in suburban Halifax on Tuesday, May 30, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese
Halifax’s deputy fire chief says an out-of-control wildfire burning northwest of the city has not grown beyond the evacuation perimeter, where 200 homes and structures have been either damaged or destroyed since the fire started Sunday.
But Deputy Chief David Meldrum stressed at a late-day news conference Tuesday that the blaze is not out, adding it can still “wake up and gain new energy.”
No deaths or injuries have been reported as a result of the fire.
But about 16,000 people have been ordered to leave their Halifax-area homes, most of which are within a 30-minute drive of the port city’s downtown.
An evacuation order for another 2,000 people has been issued in southwestern Nova Scotia, where a 100-square-kilometre fire continues to grow northwest of Barrington, N.S.
Fire officials have voiced concern about a potential “reburn” due to the extended forecast calling for hot, windy weather today and Thursday, and no rain until Friday night at the earliest.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 31, 2023.
