Three new small wildfires ignited in the Pontiac on Thanksgiving Monday (Oct. 13) – one on chemin du Devonshire in Mansfield, one just north of Thorne Lake, and the third on MacCreadie Road in Otter Lake.
By Tuesday afternoon, the Mansfield fire (0.4 Ha) had been extinguished and the Thorne fire (10.5 Ha) was categorized as “being held,” meaning it is no longer spreading, with SOPFEU firefighters working to extinguish it throughout Tuesday.
SOPFEU’s Outaouais spokesperson Melanie Morin said firefighters were notified of the Otter Lake fire too late on Monday evening to begin working on it, but that municipal firefighters responded to the scene.
Pontiac North chief Denis Chaussé said the department received a call on Monday evening at 4:55 p.m. for a bush fire on MacCreadie Road near the Domaine Picanoc cottages.
“It was 30 minutes that we were searching for the location, and by chance a chopper from SOPFEU [was heading for] the fire in Thorne [ . . . ] and they gave us the GPS location,” he said, adding that the department worked to control the fire before nightfall.
“We had to protect the buildings,” he said, adding that after dark the department remained on the scene to patrol the area until a SOPFEU crew arrived in the morning.
Chaussé said the department patrolled the area of Blaskie Road and MacCreadie Road to ensure that nobody was still around, and evacuated three people from a cottage facing Otter Lake.
“There was lots of smoke going toward them,” he said.
Chaussé said SOPFEU had taken control of the fire by Tuesday morning, and would be on site for a few days to monitor the hot spots.
By Wednesday afternoon, the fire was 6.8 Ha and was categorized as “under control”.
Since Oct. 1 when the Outaouais-wide fire ban was put in place, there have been 10 new wildfires in MRC Pontiac covering a total of 31.6 Ha. At present, the largest fire in the Outaouais (at 21.8 Ha) has been burning just west of Lac Cahill in Zec St-Patrice since Oct. 5. Its cause is listed as recreation, and its status is currently “under control.”
With files from K.C. Jordan.
This story will be updated as more information is received.
