More than 10,000 people had to leave their homes in the province because of wildfires
On Friday night, forest fires forced people to leave another town in Quebec. The 2,000 people who live in Lebel-sur-Quévillon were told to leave their homes because a nearby fire was getting close.
The Public Security Ministry of Quebec sent out an “extreme” evacuation alert at 9:56 p.m., hours after the first alert was sent out at 5 p.m.
Stéphane Caron, a coordinator for SOPFEU, Quebec’s wildfire management agency, said, “The situation in Lebel-sur-Quevillon is giving us a lot of trouble.” “The fire’s power keeps going forward.”
The forest fire is about 30 kilometers north of the town in the Jamésie region of Quebec. It is southwest of another fire that forced the small town of Chapais to evacuate earlier this week. About 130 fires are burning in the province, and they have been getting bigger because it hasn’t rained and it’s been hot.
Isabelle Lessard, the mayor of Chapais, said that the forest fire that forced 1,000 people to leave their homes earlier this week is no longer getting worse and that people can start going back home on Saturday.
At a press conference on Saturday, Lessard said, “The fact that the fire hasn’t grown shows that the steps we took were effective, even though we only had small teams.”
As people left Lebel-sur-Quévillon on Friday, a cloud of black smoke filled the town. Many people said they weren’t worried about their homes because a big lake borders the town and is between it and the forest fire to the north.
By 11 p.m. on Friday, almost the whole town was empty. On Highway 113, there was a long line of cars going south toward Senneterre, which was about 90 kilometers away. There, people were asked to meet at an arena so that authorities could give them more instructions.
Nathalie-Ann Pelchat, the mayor of Senneterre, said that officials had told her that Lebel-sur-Quévillon would probably have to be evacuated on Saturday, but that soon changed to Friday.
People who had to leave their homes were told to meet at the André-Dubé arena in Senneterre. From there, they could choose to stay with friends, family, or at École secondaire La Concorde, the local high school.
“There’s a lot of room, and it’s cool inside. “We’re trying to give them a nice, warm place to sleep,” Pelchat said.
Céline Beaulieu-Deschênes and her husband, Yvan Deschênes, made it to Senneterre Friday night.
“The alarm caught me by surprise, but the smoke was pretty strong. It felt safer to leave,” Beaulieu-Deschênes said.
Guy Lafrenière, the mayor of Lebel-sur-Quévillon, told Radio-Canada on Saturday morning that about 20 people still had not left the town. Lafrenière said that, other than that, the evacuation went well, especially considering that volunteers went door to door to tell people they had to leave.
Ten thousand people have to leave Sept-Îles because of evacuations
In Sept-Îles, which is on the north shore of Quebec, another big fire has forced 10,000 people to leave their homes. Authorities were worried that the fire could join other small fires nearby and keep getting bigger and stronger. The city said on Saturday that the fire didn’t spread much overnight but that officials are still on high alert and keeping a close eye on the situation.
The areas of Lac-Daigle, des Plages, Moisie, and Maliotenam, as well as the Innu community of Uashat mak Mani-utenam, have all been told to evacuate. The 1,500 people who lived in Mani-utenam were asked to move to Pessamit, which is about 300 kilometers west.
Francois Bonnardel, the Minister of Public Safety, said on Twitter on Friday that he had asked Ottawa to send the Canadian Armed Forces to help fight the fires.