Quebec wildfires: fierce fight in Normétal, flames within 500 metres of municipality

Quebec’s public security minister preached patience on Thursday as fires continued to rage in the province’s north, saying it remained unclear when more than 12,000 people displaced by the encroaching flames would be able to return home.

There have been no reports of injuries or deaths, or damage to homes from the 150 wildfires burning across the province, Public Security Minister François Bonnardel told reporters in Roberval, Que., about 250 kilometres north of Quebec City.

There were no additional evacuations to announce, but no rain was expected until next week and temperatures across the province were expected to rise, he said.

“Some fires are under control, some not,” Bonnardel said. “We’ve evacuated 12,600 people all over Quebec, principally in the north of Quebec. We’re looking at these fires every hour, we’re hoping to tell Quebecers they will be able to go back home, but in the short term, it won’t be possible.”

Quebec’s wildfire fight was focused Thursday in the province’s northern and western regions, where flames had reached the doorstep of a municipality of roughly 800 people. Authorities said a wildfire was within 500 metres of Normetal, Que., located 720 kilometres northwest of Montreal, in the Abitibi region.

The province’s forest fire prevention agency, Societe de protection des forets contre le feu, said it was confident the small community could be protected, with winds less strong than first feared.

Agency spokeswoman Karine Pelletier said the government was also focusing efforts on Lebel-sur-Quevillon, Que., a northern municipality where 2,100 people were evacuated and where two separate large fires risked merging. A wildfire was located about 15 kilometres outside of town.

About 15 kilometres outside the northern town of Chibougamau, a wildfire had stabilized, Bonnardel said. Meanwhile the nearby Cree community of Mistissini, population 4,000, remained on alert but had not been evacuated.

Chibougamau Mayor Manon Cyr thanked the city of Roberval for offering shelter to residents from her town. Many evacuees from various Quebec communities have been sent there and to neighbouring municipalities.

Cyr said she has told Chibougamau residents to be calm despite the uncertainty.

“I tell them to be like me, Zen and patient. That’s the most important,” Cyr said, joking that she had done a type of rain dance to bring about much-needed precipitation to the region.

“But seriously, that’s what we are (hoping) for, you know, until we have good quantity of rain, that’s going to be the solution.”

So far more than 639,000 hectares have burned in the province, representing the worst fire season on record.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2023.