Following a weekend spent fighting forest fires just outside Halifax, the province is reminding Nova Scotians that a burn ban is in place until at least June 1.<\/p>\n
Jim Rudderham, acting manager for forest protection with the department of lands and forestry, says for the moment, that also includes a ban on brush burning, fire pits and chimineas.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo as the weather conditions continue to dry, the whole province right now is in red, obviously, and you can\u2019t burn. But as conditions improve and get better, and we are allowed to burn again, people have to make sure they check everyday at 2:00pm on our burn safe site, to make sure that it\u2019s safe to have a fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rudderham says the restrictions are evaluated daily for each county across Nova Scotia and are put in place based on science and weather reports.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not there to penalize people. It\u2019s there to make sure we all stay safe and don\u2019t have to run to fire after fire and have homes evacuated and all that stuff. It needs to be followed.\u201d<\/p>\n
A fire in Porters Lake over the weekend burned more than 40 hectares, closed part of Highway 107 and forced the evacuation of 1,00 homes.<\/p>\n
The response involved Lands and Forestry crews on the ground and in three helicopters as well as Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency personnel, RCMP, and crews from the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal among others.<\/p>\n
Rudderham says trying to maintain social distancing while fighting a forest fire is challenging and one more reason to try to prevent these fires in the first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to fight a fire and keep all these things in place. You know, you\u2019re starting a pump, you\u2019re grabbing a hose, it\u2019s just very difficult. We\u2019re trying so hard to avoid any kind of fire, so people really need to help us out on this as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Precautions against the spread of COVID-19 extend even to the front lines of the fires.<\/p>\n
Rudderham says hand-washing stations and hand sanitizer is provided and they\u2019re careful about how crews are fed.<\/p>\n
Even garbage handling is monitored to ensure the virus can\u2019t be transmitted.<\/p>\n
Rudderham is the also the area manager for Shelburne and Queens.<\/p>\n
He was disappointed to learn while fire crews were working this weekend, someone cut down the sign to the McGowan Lake Depot on Highway 8 just outside Caledonia.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know why people would do that kind of stuff, it\u2019s very clearly vandalism against us. The ironic thing is, the firefighters, when they\u2019re not fighting fires, they do a lot of maintenance, a lot of taking care of our parks, all that kind of stuff. So it\u2019s our firefighters that are going to have to fix that sign.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rudderham says they didn\u2019t file a complaint with police because it is unlikely anyone would be caught.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t report it because there\u2019s really nothing you can do about that. It\u2019s just very frustrating and discouraging to our staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
To find out about updated burn restrictions you can go to the provincial website at novascotia.ca\/burnsafe<\/a>.<\/p>\n