An evacuation alert ended Saturday for thousands near a wildfire burning close to Newfoundland and Labrador’s largest city, but in Nova Scotia, officials feared an out-of-control fire in Annapolis Valley would spread.
Dave Steeves, a provincial public information officer, said the fire near Long Lake had nearly doubled in size since Friday to about eight square kilometres. The fire is burning about 135 kilometres northwest of Halifax, and officials declared a state of emergency in Annapolis County on Saturday.
Steeves said he worried the wildfire would keep growing.
"The potential for growth today is very real," he told reporters during a press briefing Saturday. "Our air assets and firefighters on the ground are doing their very best to to try to hold it, where it's safe."
Forest protection director Jim Rudderham was blunt about the conditions driving the flames. "It's still hot and dry and we have no rain," he said.
Much of Atlantic Canada has been in the grips of drought-like conditions and sweltering heat. There was no rain in the forecast in Annapolis County until Monday, but some fell across much of Newfoundland on Friday.
Officials announced Saturday afternoon that an evacuation alert had ended for about 20,000 people in and around St. John's. The Department of Justice and Public Safety also ended a regional state of emergency that included the towns of Paradise and Conception Bay South, on the outskirts of the city, and the St. John's neighbourhoods of Galway and Southlands.
The evacuation alert was prompted by a fire near Paddy's Pond, about 15 kilometres southwest of the city's downtown core.
Bryan Oke, a provincial forest fire duty officer, said the alert was lifted because weather conditions had improved.
"Cooler temperatures and moderate amounts of rain — we're talking five millimetres of rain — have provided some relief to the area," he said in an interview. "Today was the first day in a while that we were able to provide aerial suppression early in the morning, just due to the weather conditions in the past days."
The fire measured about three square kilometres and it showed no growth overnight Friday, officials said in a news release.
The largest fire in the province, known as the Kingston fire, also held steady overnight at about 95 square kilometres. Burning along the northwestern shore of Conception Bay, it has destroyed roughly 100 houses and forced 3,000 people out of their homes.
Officials issued a precautionary evacuation alert for the town of Freshwater, N.L., on Saturday, asking residents to be ready to flee should the Kingston fire creep closer.
Though some in the Kingston fire area posted videos to social media of much-needed downpours Friday, local authorities warned the fight was not yet over.
"While some rainfall did reach the region, it was not substantial, though it did provide slight relief to firefighting crews on the ground," said a social media post Friday night from a municipal government representing several towns in the area.
News that the fire had not grown larger offered "a small but welcome reprieve," the post said.
In Nova Scotia, crews fighting the Long Lake wildfire are down one helicopter after a Department of Natural Resources aircraft crashed into a lake on Friday afternoon. Rudderham said the pilot is doing well but the helicopter is out of commission.
"Yesterday certainly showed that the work we do is dangerous," he said.
He did not say what caused the crash, citing a pending investigation by Transport Canada.
The Long Lake forced the evacuation of about 100 homes in the heavily wooded West Dalhousie area earlier in the week. Officials remain concerned that more fires will ignite in the coming days after thunderstorms rolled across the province Thursday night and into the morning.
Lightning can penetrate deep into the ground, which is abnormally dry. Several days can pass before a lightning strike ignites a fire.
A fire broke out in Pictou County on Friday night, and Rudderham said it was caused by lightning.
"We're worried that today and tomorrow are going to be our worst days for this, so we're still very concerned," he said.
In northern New Brunswick, a wildfire north of Miramichi prompted officials Friday night to ask residents of Lavillette to be prepared to evacuate on short notice.
The provincial government said there were 30 active fires across New Brunswick on Saturday, six of which were burning out of control.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 16, 2025.
— Written by Sarah Smellie in St. John's, N.L.
The Canadian Press
