(Quebec) Lebel-sur-Quévillon, a small municipality in Nord-du-Québec, became Friday evening the third city to be evacuated due to major forest fires that are progressing across the province. Some 10,000 people also had to leave their homes in Sept-Îles. The Legault government has asked for help from the Canadian Armed Forces.
A mandatory evacuation notice was issued in the evening for some 2,000 residents of Lebel-sur-Quévillon, a small municipality located about 650 kilometers north of Montreal. The city’s sirens began to sound continuously to warn citizens to evacuate, according to an online statement on the municipality’s website.
It was fire #344 that led to this massive evacuation. Out of control, this fire was fought by SOPFEU, but reached a level where “the fight becomes useless”, indicates spokesperson Stéphane Caron.
According to the assessments made by SOPFEU “we cannot say that Lebel-sur-Quévillon is not threatened”, he adds. “At this time, we have to be realistic and exercise great caution. »
Residents must leave the place towards Senneterre, in Abiti-Témiscamingue, by bringing an emergency kit. Those who don’t have a car can go to the community center in the small town, where a transportation service is offered.
It is now the third municipality in Quebec to be evacuated – completely or in part – in areas located hundreds of kilometers from each other, due to out of control forest fires.
“I have just contacted the federal government to seek assistance from the Canadian Armed Forces with the forest fire situation. […] We are doing everything in our power to help the people of the North Shore, ”said Public Security Minister François Bonnardel on social media at the end of the afternoon.
Quebec is asking for help to transport emergency equipment, foodstuffs and gasoline, evacuate disaster victims, provide technical support and expertise in civil engineering and to “contribute to the logistical planning of the supply of ’emergency of isolated communities’.
At the start of the day, he indicated that there were “about 10,000 people who are evacuated in a preventive manner on the Sept-Îles side, there are about 1,000 on the Chapais side”.
In Sept-Îles, which has nearly 25,000 inhabitants, evacuation is mandatory in the Lac-Daigle, Plages and Moisie sectors, said the mayor of Sept-Îles, Steeve Beaupré, in a press briefing on Friday morning. . At the end of the day, he warned the residents of the Sainte-Famille district, more densely populated, to prepare their suitcases in case of evacuation in the coming days: they are on “pre-alert”.
A dozen patients requiring acute active care were evacuated by plane to the CHU de Québec, also announced Manon Asselin, CEO of the CISSS de la Côte-Nord at the start of the evening. Other users could be evacuated in the coming hours and days, both on the North Shore and elsewhere in Quebec, she added.
The culprit: fire 172, which runs along the Moisie River and which “has taken on an unexpected magnitude [jeudi] and that is what justifies this evacuation,” said Mayor Steeve Beaupré. “Last night, the latest information, it was not going in that direction, but the fire has progressed a lot”, so that there “could be a junction between the two fires which are currently in activity”, has he explained. At the end of the day on Friday, this fire was still progressing, but more slowly.
However, the city is preparing for the worst and has already begun to carry out protective work around key infrastructures, such as the drinking water treatment plant. Nearly 70 firefighters from Forestville, Baie-Comeau and Quebec are on their way to Sept-Îles to lend a hand to the authorities.
According to the CISSS de la Côte-Nord, no one injured or inconvenienced by the smoke has needed medical attention since the start of the fire.
Complete evacuation of Mani-utenam
The Innu community of Uashat Mak Mani-utenam also declared a state of emergency and announced the complete evacuation of the 1,500 residents of Mani-utenam, located about fifteen kilometers from Sept-Îles, because of this fire which has already chipped away at 33,800 hectares of forest. They can be transported by bus to the community of Pessamit, where they will be welcomed.
The same fire worries the largest employer in the region, the multinational Rio Tinto. It had to interrupt its iron ore transport activities because it closed for a period of seven days the private railway it operates, the Quebec North Shore and Labradorwhich connects Sept-Îles to Labrador City.
Closure of the railway
“For the moment, the main infrastructures have not been seriously affected, but there are communication infrastructures that are damaged [le réseau de fibre optique et une tour de communication], while poles fell across and along the tracks. Our brigade is continuing its efforts to protect a bridge and a tower located at mile 12 and we are continuing to work with SOPFEU,” said company spokesperson Simon Letendre.
The closure of this railway has just enclaved Shefferville, because the passenger train can no longer circulate either. The Matimekosh community is “more isolated than ever,” said Ian Lafrenière, the minister responsible for First Nations Relations.
For its part, the Côte-Nord Integrated Health and Social Services Center (CISSS) announced that it was suspending “until further notice” all its “non-emergency” activities at the Sept-Îles Hospital in due to forest fires. It therefore closed the outpatient clinics, and the endoscopy and medical imaging departments.
The information will be updated hourly, said the Society for the Protection of Forests against Fire (SOPFEU).
The work zones on routes 138 and 172 will be lifted to facilitate evacuation and where this is not possible, there will be flaggers, said the minister responsible for the Côte-Nord region, Kateri Champagne Jourdain. The ministerial decree of Quebec also prohibits going into the forest on public lands, she recalled.
Accommodation centers have been opened in Port-Cartier, Forestville and Baie-Comeau, but for now, the vast majority of people have stayed with relatives in Sept-Îles.
Call for help
The number of active fires continued to increase through Friday. Around 7 p.m., there were 130, the majority of which are out of control, says SOPFEU. Of these, 124 are in southern Quebec, below the northern limit of forests attributable to the forest industry; the other four are in the northern zone and are not fought.
One of the largest fires 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.
An even larger blaze is raging about fifty kilometers north of Dolbeau-Mistassini, in Lac-Saint-Jean, covering nearly 2000 hectares (20 km2), but does not pose a threat to the city.
All SOPFEU personnel have been repatriated to Quebec, where they are fighting 20 forest fires, out of the 118 in progress: 400 firefighters are hard at work. Quebec has also asked for help from Mexico, the United States and Portugal.
Prime Minister François Legault said he was worried about the situation. “We are making sure that everyone is well housed. [Jeudi], the fires also triggered a system at Hydro-Quebec that left 250,000 homes without electricity. We have reached 5,000 this morning who have no electricity, ”he said.
The government of Quebec asks all Quebecers “not to go into the forest” to avoid causing new fires, and “to agree to follow the instructions” for evacuation.
The SPCA Côte-Nord, for its part, did not wait to look for foster families for its 40 cats and 17 dogs. “We must prepare for the worst, because we will be the next sector affected by the evacuation [si elle en vient à cela] “, indicated the organization with strong red exclamation marks on its Facebook page on Friday.
With Lila Dussault, Tommy Chouinard, Ariane Krol and Jean-Thomas Léveillé, The Press