At noon Thursday, Caroline Ethier, a resident of Lebel-sur-Quévillon, in Jamésie, noticed that there was a little smoke. Around 6 p.m., she fled in disaster at the sound of sirens, with her spouse, her children, her cats and her suitcase. At 38 weeks of pregnancy, the mother of the family hopes to succeed in finding refuge before giving birth.
The approximately 2,100 inhabitants of this small municipality, located 650 kilometers north of Montreal, had to be evacuated in disaster on Friday. The reason: a forest fire caused by lightning, northeast of the municipality. It started in the middle of the day and “expanded very quickly,” explained Mélanie Morin, spokesperson for the Society for the Protection of Forests against Fire (SOPFEU).
In the early evening, the City issued a mandatory evacuation alert for all residents. Around midnight, the city had been completely emptied, with the exception of the personnel dedicated to emergency measures, explained on the telephone the mayor Guy Lafrenière. “Even for the health center, people were evacuated by ambulance and plane,” he said.
It is now the third municipality in Quebec to be evacuated – completely or in part – due to uncontrolled forest fires.
“Sometimes, it seemed that my heart was going to let go of me, testifies Caroline Ethier. There, I shiver, because it seems that it falls. »
PHOTO TAKEN FROM THE FACEBOOK PAGE OF THE MEMBER FOR ABITIBI–BAIE-JAMES–NUNAVIK–EEYOU
The smoke caused by the blaze was felt Friday in Lebel-sur-Quévillon.
We reached her on the phone on the road, near Senneterre, in Abitibi-Témiscamingue. The family hoped to go to Lanaudière in the night from Friday to Saturday, where they could be accommodated with relatives. “As it’s for several days, I had to go closer to a hospital,” explains the 27-year-old mother.
She never imagined being evacuated like this, about to give birth.
I am extremely anxious. Am I going to go back home? Is all this going to induce labor too quickly? And when we come back, how will we find the village?
Caroline Ethier, resident of Lebel-sur-Quévillon
They left with the bare minimum, she says. Children, pets, and clothes to change into. All to the sound of sirens and pushed by police. “The sky was fiery orange, it was windy, it was surreal. Like something you say to yourself: it only happens in movies. But no. »
More and more fires in Quebec
The fire raging northeast of Lebel-sur-Quévillon is one of 136 recorded late Friday evening in the province. A number that has been increasing throughout the day. The majority of these fires are not under control.
In Lebel-sur-Quévillon, a change in the direction of the wind could allow the fire to bypass the lake and reach the municipality, explained Ms.me Morin, from SOPFEU.
The Nordic Kraft pulp mill in the east of the city could be the first in the fire’s path. In the evening, firefighters worked to protect this infrastructure. This Saturday morning, SOPFEU plans to build a firebreak with heavy machinery to protect the city. “If the conditions allow us, we will also work with tankers early [samedi] morning,” said M.me Morning Friday.
“I am wholeheartedly with the population of Lebel-sur-Quévillon, that of my hometown, which is completely evacuated by the approaching fires! “, reacted on Facebook Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc Québécois MP for Abitibi–Baie-James–Nunavik–Eeyou.
The Premier of Quebec, François Legault, also asked the Quévillonais to evacuate their homes. “Thank you for your collaboration,” he wrote on Facebook.
Other major fires underway
One of the largest fires in the province is at the gates of the town of Chapais, in Nord-du-Québec, and covers nearly 1,400 hectares, or 14 km2. Part of the town was evacuated on Wednesday. The residents have not yet been able to return to their homes.
An even larger blaze is raging about fifty kilometers north of Dolbeau-Mistassini, in Lac-Saint-Jean, covering nearly 2,000 hectares (20 km2), but does not pose a threat to the city.
All SOPFEU staff have been repatriated to Quebec, where they are fighting 20 forest fires, out of the 136 in progress: 400 firefighters are at work. Hundreds of firefighters from the United States, Mexico, South Africa and Portugal were called in to help.
“This is a scary time for many people from coast to coast,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday.
In total, more than 3.1 million hectares have already burned in 2023 in Canada, eight times more than the average of the last 30 years. And there are currently 333 active fires, 192 of which are uncontrolled. Nearly half of these fires are burning in Quebec.
With Agence France-Presse