(Montreal) “Unfortunately, we lost control. We will have to let Clova burn,” said Prime Minister François Legault on June 5, at the height of the historic forest fire season. Far from having been destroyed, the hamlet located inside the municipality of La Tuque, in Mauricie, is today filled with life.
Dominic Vincent’s motel and restaurant are full these days – thanks in large part to logging industry workers trying to harvest some of the burned wood before it deteriorates from drought and insects .
“We have three years of harvest, but we only have one year to do it, so we can talk about a race,” underlines Mr. Vincent in a telephone interview.
“There are quite a few forestry industry workers here at the moment who, usually, have already left,” he adds, noting in passing that the motels are “full, full, full.”
At the beginning of June, however, the picture was very different. As more than 150 forest fires burned across Quebec, almost all residents of the small community were forced to evacuate.
Due to the intensity of the flames, which meant that the air tankers were unable to take off, Mr. Legault even announced at a press conference that the teams would be forced to “let Clova burn”. What the prime minister didn’t know, however, was that the battle to save Clova was far from over.
Mr. Vincent was one of about nine residents of the hamlet who stayed behind to protect their community, watering the areas around houses and roads for two consecutive nights, sometimes until 4:30 a.m.
Initially, the only machinery they had at their disposal was an old pump provided by the local fire department. In the hours that followed, they were able to get their hands on more modern equipment, courtesy of area businesses.
Shortly after the Prime Minister’s statement, the Society for the Protection of Forests Against Fire (SOPFEU) attempted to correct the situation by mentioning that efforts were still being made in Clova, including ground work and watering by helicopter. , while the air tankers were grounded.
According to Mr. Vincent, the worst of the crisis had even already passed when Mr. Legault made his statement – which did not prevent those close to him from sending him panicked messages.
“It looked worse from the outside,” says Mr. Vincent. The people who remained in the village still had an evacuation plan in place when the flames approached two kilometers from Clova.
A declaration and its repercussions
Éric Chagnon, who is a municipal councilor in La Tuque for the sector which covers Clova, deplores that Mr. Legault was not better informed of the situation before giving his press briefing.
When the Prime Minister said that we will have to abandon Clova to save other places, I found that that was a bit lacking in respect for the people who were still there.
Éric Chagnon, municipal councilor in La Tuque for the Clova sector,
Mr. Chagnon recalls that even if the hamlet officially only has 36 residents, there is still an average of around 100 or 200 people staying in chalets or working in the forestry industry.
The area is also very popular for hunting, fishing, and snowmobile excursions, which attract “a lot of tourists”.
The city councilor, who helped bring water tanks to Clova during the fires, says the province should learn to prepare better so that villagers are not “left to their own devices” in the event of a fire.
“It is not normal that in Quebec or in Canada, we have an army and lots of people who fight flames, but who have no training for this work and who do not know how to help people in times of need. difficult like these. »
Avoidable losses
No homes were destroyed by the flames in Clova, but several people lost their chalets – a situation that Vincent said could have been avoided if residents had had access to more resources.
“There are people who lost their chalets because we were not well enough equipped to protect them,” he denounces.
The fire season has also been difficult for the forestry industry and tourism businesses, which have had to close their doors during the peak season.
Olivier Brossard, owner of César Camps du Nord in Clova, did not lose any of his chalets, but he was deprived of substantial income due to the ban on activities in the forest which was imposed for much of the month of June.
“We had just gone through two pandemic years, where tourism was slow, and then we had the fires,” he mentions, adding that several outfitters like him hope to obtain financial assistance from the government.
Today, when Mr. Brossard flies over the forest with his planes, he can see the chalets that have been destroyed and the trees that have burned.
“I think the people of Clova showed a lot of courage to save their village,” he said.
For his part, Mr. Chagnon is delighted that life is gradually returning to normal in Clova, to the point where owners who lost their chalet are already considering rebuilding it.
“There are people who will always stay. They will never leave. »