The capital of Canada’s eastern province of Nova Scotia has declared a state of emergency as an out-of-control wildfire raging near Halifax forced thousands of residents to evacuate and prompted the closure of schools.
The Halifax Regional Municipality has set up temporary accommodation for people fleeing the fire and reminded residents early on Monday that the evacuation orders are mandatory.
The wildfire, fed by strong winds and tinder-dry woods, has damaged dozens of homes and hampered rescue services, authorities said.
Dave Meldrum, deputy chief of Halifax Fire, told reporters on Monday that there had been no reports of missing people or injuries but structures had suffered damage or were destroyed.
“Our firefighters and other partners worked hard to evacuate a large area of our city yesterday, and last night, we remained on scene,” Meldrum said.
“We had 100 firefighters here on scene overnight, fighting spot fires, extinguishing structures that were on fire, preventing more structures from being lost wherever we could,” he said.
Halifax, a port city of about 480,000 people, declared a state of emergency late on Sunday to help respond to the blaze, which was still burning in the nearby Tantallon and Hammonds Plains areas.
Source: Aljazeera