Smoke Still Billowing in Halifax: 100 EVACUATIONS, Homes Burned

Some 1,200 Halifax residents were forced to evacuate after a massive brush fire raged outside the port city off Canada's Atlantic Coast, firefighters said Friday.

...The fire was contained but still not under control Friday, said the firefighters, adding that they had been fueled by debris left in 2003 by Hurricane Juan, which caused many trees to fall in the region.

Around 6 a.m. Friday, police were going door to door on Purcells Cove Road, near the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron, ordering more families to get out of the area as the fire closed in.

Harriette King was told she had 10 minutes to leave.

When darkness fell, the fire department stopped battling the blaze for safety reasons, although Mr. Smith said firefighters were watching houses in the area overnight.

The Canadian Red Cross said close to 330 homes had been evacuated by early evening. Officials estimated that about 900 people were out of their homes.

...As the sun went down, the fire was moving closer to the community of Herring Cove, she said.

Fire department spokesman Dave Meldrum said the conditions were becoming more favourable.

“The temperature is falling and the wind is calming,” he said as dusk fell. “That's helping a lot with the firefighting.”

 By 6:30 p.m. at least 12 homes were reported on fire. Among emergency responders on the scene were municipal and provincial firefighters, Halifax Regional Police, EHS paramedics and the Canadian Red Cross.

Fire officials couldn’t provide a cause or point of origin but the blaze is believed to have started from a hot spot left from a fire that hit the Spryfield area Wednesday. A stubborn wind fanned the flames Thursday and sent the fire southward.

Later during the battle to get the fire under control, water bombers were used.

Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly went to the disaster scene Thursday evening. The fire took place less than a year after a devastating blaze destroyed two homes in the Porters Lake-Lake Echo are and forced the evacuation of about 5,000 people.

  The smoke abruptly went from all white, to a separate black plume amidst the white, at about 5:30 p.m.. It is clear something other than wood is now burning. That is prime ocean-front real estate, going up in flames. Shades of California.

The problem with this fire, and with the Porter's Lake fire last year, is that there is a lot of dried brush and dead trees that fell during Hurricane Juan that provides a ton of fuel.

Anyways, it looks like the fire is moving away from my area, but I do know the daughter of a couple that has lost their home. Her parents are currently in Australia - how awful.