Lebel-sur-Quévillon | “It would have been boom”

“When you see where the fire stopped, it freezes the blood. With the approach of a critical period for forest fires in Nord-du-Québec, strategic infrastructures have been secured. This is the case of the Nordic Kraft plant, where the fate of fuel oil tanks and chlorine wagons raised fears of the worst on June 2.

The fate of the factory was decided in a few days. 1^er June, lightning struck the parched area, triggering a hundred fires in the boreal forest belt around Lebel-sur-Quévillon.

The next day, around 5 p.m., the approximately 2,100 inhabitants of this small municipality, located 650 kilometers north of Montreal, were ordered to evacuate.

Chantier Chibougamau, the company that owns the Nordic Kraft plant, has initiated emergency measures. “From half hour to half hour, the noose was tightening at an absolutely unprecedented speed”, describes the executive director of the company, Frédéric Verreault.

A juggernaut, wagons of chlorine

However, Nordic Kraft is not a factory like the others.

“Nothing is on a human scale, it’s a behemoth”, sums up Frédéric Verreault. There are tanks of fuel oil and natural gas, mountains of woodchips and, at all times, five to ten carloads of chlorine products.

This last product is used to bleach kraft pulp, an essential ingredient in the manufacture of toilet paper, of which the Lebel-sur-Quévillon plant is a crucial cog. “The vast majority of Quebecers have Lebel-sur-Quévillon kraft pulp in their toilet paper,” says Frédéric Verreault.

According to the company’s “worst case scenario”, a fire and explosion at the plant had the potential to send debris flying “a few miles”.

The tension mounted as the fire got closer. A dozen employees are still on site on the evening of June 2. Disposal of chemicals from the site was quickly ruled out. The only road to evacuate the city, the 113, was then taken by the Quevillonnais to flee towards the south.

“The road network was precarious and it still is. If we took the risk of moving these resources on Route 113, we would shoot the boat,” summarizes Frédéric Verreault.

the after

By dint of effort and a fierce fight by the authorities, the 344 fire finally grounded less than 500 meters from the perimeter of the factory on June 3, as shown by satellite images consulted by The Press.

This fire, the largest at present in Quebec according to data from the Society for the Protection of Forests Against Fire (SOPFEU), burned 3,520 km^⁠2 since June 2 – seven and a half times the area of ​​the island of Montreal.

Trenches equipped with sprinklers, in particular, slowed down the behemoth, a method that is not used lightly by SOPFEU. “We install it for values ​​to protect. That is to say to protect human lives, ”says a spokesperson for the organization, Mélanie Morin.

Municipal firefighters also got involved. The fact that the fire bypassed the plant also owes much to the presence of hardwoods, considered firebreaks, around the plant.

With a heat wave approaching this week in Nord-du-Québec and with little rain expected in the coming weeks, Chantiers Chibougamau has set to work to make the site safer.

The company works on the premise that a brand can travel two kilometers in the air. “The risk is very low, but it exists,” insists Frédéric Verrault.

Each softwood tree was felled in this perimeter around the Nordic Kraft factory. Some 700 meters of garden hoses were deployed, in addition to fire hydrants. The mountains of chips, as big as sand dunes, and the roofs of buildings are constantly watered.

The “secure” factory

The City and Public Security authorities have approved the Chantiers Chibougamau plan. The reintegration of residents was thus authorized as of last Sunday.

Lebel-sur-Quévillon Mayor Guy Lafrenière says he only learned nine days after the June 2 evacuation of the nature of the danger the plant had posed to his community less than two miles away. .

On the evening of June 2, “the fire was on the side of the factory, so I knew that if it happened there, it would have made ‘boom’ in places”, he says.

Today, he says, “the factory is full secure”. After the frightening episode of June 2, “for the factory and the city, even if it is hot, it is not worrying”, affirms the elected official. “The fire burned what was next to us, the problem is Route 113.”

On Wednesday, Guy Lafrenière nevertheless recommended to his fellow citizens who have a place to stay outside the city to go there now. If the fire makes one of the two axes of Route 113 inaccessible, an evacuation order will be given, he warned.

Hydro-Québec monitors smoke plumes

Also owner of critical infrastructure in Nord-du-Québec, Hydro-Québec is keeping an eye on several situations, particularly in connection with the huge plumes of smoke caused by forest fires.

“We monitor given sectors, not always for the infrastructure as such, but for our workers,” explains the head of emergency measures, Maryse Dalpé.

Although some fires have approached several distribution stations in recent weeks, including that of Lebel, in Lebel-sur-Quévillon, and those of Lemoyne, in James Bay, and Manic and Micoua, on the North Shore , none were damaged.

However, transmission lines cross areas affected by the fires, but these were not damaged by the fire, says Hydro-Québec. “Remember that there are no trees under our lines, the rights-of-way being subject to continuous vegetation control,” said a spokesperson for the state-owned company, Caroline Desrosiers.