Firefighters from Quebec’s fire protection agency SOPFEU have declared a small 3.2-hectare forest fire in the municipality of Thorne to be “under control” after working to extinguish it over the weekend. 

According to SOPFEU’s website, when a fire is “under control,” its spread has been stopped by a suppression line, whether natural (rock, mineral soil, waterbody), artificial (road, wetline), or due to weather conditions.

Melanie Morin, SOPFEU communications agent for the Outaouais region, said under this classification, firefighters are certain the fire will not spread. 

“The entire perimeter has a line around it where there are still hot spots within but we’re certain it will not breach the perimeter,” she explained. 

She said six SOPFEU firefighters were still working on extinguishing the fire (named Fire 201) on Monday. 

“It’s just working the fire and making sure all hot spots within the perimeter are being extinguished.” 

The cause of this fire is still undetermined.

Shawville-Clarendon and Thorne fire departments were first called to respond to the fire just after 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon (Aug. 9), but soon learned the fire – located northeast of Sparling Lake, near chemin Leduc – was inaccessible by road, as the trucks could not fit down the small bush trail to get closer to the site. 

The departments’ chief Lee Laframboise then called in assistance from SOPFEU, which sent two teams of firefighters by helicopter, as well as two water bombers, to help put out the fire. 

Chief Laframboise said he and other firefighters told residents on chemin Leduc to evacuate their homes on Saturday evening, and also visited residents on Sparling Lake to update them on the state of the fire.

“One guy, he was watching the smoke and was trying to get his pump started, he was wanting to wet all of his property. It’s a little scary,” he said Saturday evening after returning from the call. 

“I [was] not telling them to evacuate, but I didn’t want them sleeping in the cottage and not knowing there was a fire on the mountain.”

Gatineau residents Daniel Larcher and his wife Joanne Lafrenière were some of the first to notice the smoke from the fire, and were advised by firefighters to evacuate from the area on Saturday evening. 

They have an RV on a one-acre piece of land at the end of chemin Leduc, a few hundred feet from where the fire broke out, where they’ve been staying for 15 years. 

“They came back to see us around 7 p.m. to tell us the employees of SOFEU were suggesting we should leave because of the smoke,” Larcher said. 

He said the smoke had disappeared by the time they had returned to the lot on Sunday afternoon, but by Sunday evening he had to call 9-1-1 again, as heavy smoke had returned. 

Laframboise said local firefighters promptly responded to the call and successfully put out the flare ups. 

“It got us worried,” Larcher said. “We’re not used to that. We see that on TV, but when it’s here, and you have the airplanes coming over your head, it leaves an impression.”

Lightning causes second fire near ZEC Pontiac

A lightning strike caused a second forest fire to ignite some 80 kilometres north of Otter Lake on Saturday evening, on the western edge of ZEC Pontiac. 

“When the water bombers were leaving Fire 201 on Saturday night they were heading back to Val-d’Or and saw the fire,” Morin said.

As of 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 11, the fire, which is currently about 4.5 hectares in size, was classified as “being held,” which means its growth has been temporarily halted and it is not expected to expand by more than 10 per cent within the next 10 hours, or 150 hectares, whichever occurs first.

But Morin said the fire is in fact under control now as well, according to the incident commander on the job, even though the map still says it’s being held. 

“The fire is not moving, but we’re working the interior of the perimeter to put out the hot spots.” 

Very high fire risk to continue 

SOPFEU is forecasting high, very high and extreme fire risk levels on Monday and Tuesday of this week, and predicting incoming precipitation on Tuesday evening and Wednesday will return the fire risk level to low on Wednesday. 

“But that’s going to depend on the kind of rain we get,” Morin said.

“Often the map reflects that weather is coming in, but we’ve been through that cycle the last few weeks where often it is just really patchy, spotty rain that one area gets, and not another, and often it’s not enough coverage to really change the fire danger ratings.”

Morin said seeing three forest fires in one weekend in the Pontiac region – including one in Bristol that ignited the evening of Aug. 10 – is evidence that SOPFEU’s fire risk predictions are accurate.

“Whether it be lightning or human caused, the conditions were ripe for a wildfire to ignite. We’re lucky we’re in August. There’s higher humidity in the air. The foliage is at its peak maturity, so these are fires that did not grow very rapidly and did not become very large,” she said. 

“However, 3.2 and 4.5 hectares, these are fires that if they had been near cabins or different structures could have done damage. So it’s important for people to continue being cautious and to follow municipal recommendations.” 

Chief Laframboise has instated a complete fire ban in the municipalities of Clarendon and Thorne, and Portage du Fort which also prohibits fires in approved, screened-in fire burning pits, effective until further notice.

He said he plans to lift the ban for screened in pits once the region gets some rain.

*Updates to this story will be posted here as they become available.