Firefighters from Quebec’s fire protection agency SOPFEU have declared a 3.2-hectare forest fire in the municipality of Thorne to be contained after working to control it all afternoon.

Shawville-Clarendon and Thorne fire departments were called to respond to the fire just after 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon, 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. 

At 9 p.m. on Aug. 9, the status of the fire was “being held” on SOPFEU’s fire map, an update from it’s previous status of “new”. The size of the fire was also changed from 1.5 hectares, as originally reported by SOPFEU, to 3.2 hectares.

According to SOPFEU’s website, when a fire is “being held,” its growth has been temporarily stopped and it is not expected to expand by more than 10 per cent within the next 10 hours or 150 hectares, whichever occurs first.

“Right now, our actions are causing the fire to temporarily stop. We’re expecting the fire to be considered contained by this evening,” said Melanie Morin, SOPFEU communications agent for the Outaouais region, around 7 p.m. on Aug. 9. “Contained means it’s no longer actively spreading, but that there are still hot spots within its perimeter.”

Morin said, however, that even when considered officially contained, high winds could still cause the fire to move. She said firefighters will return in the morning to reassess its condition and work to complete its extinction.

“Our next step will be calling it ‘under control’ where 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.” 

Once it’s considered under control, which firefighters hope to achieve by tomorrow, it is unlikely to move anymore. 

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

“It’s a little scary. I’m 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.”

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