Four small forest fires broke out in the Pontiac region between Aug. 9 and Aug. 11 in the municipalities of Litchfield, Bristol, Thorne, and one almost 100 kilometres north of Otter Lake, following many days of extremely hot weather and little rain. 

A fifth fire of about 0.1 hectares was reported to be burning north of Waltham early the morning of Aug. 12.

Quebec’s fire protection agency, SOPFEU, was called in to respond to all five fires. As of Aug. 12 at 5 p.m., the first two fires to ignite on Saturday in Thorne and and ZEC Pontiac were classified as “extinguished“, and fires in Bristol, Litchfield and Waltham, all caused by lightening, were classified as “being held.”

According to SOPFEU’s fire classification system, for a fire to be considered “being held,” its progression will have been temporarily halted and is not expected to expand by more than 10 per cent within the next 10 hours, or by 150 hectares, whichever occurs first.

Mélanie Morin, SOPFEU communication agent for the Outaouais region, said seeing this many forest fires in one weekend in the Pontiac region is evidence that SOPFEU’s fire risk predictions, which forecasted high fire risk levels across the region, 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, [ . . . ] 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.” 

Litchfield fire ‘being held‘

Around 3 p.m. on Monday afternoon, the Campbell’s Bay-Litchfield Fire Department received a 9-1-1 call for a bush fire in the forest between chemin Wilson and chemin Moorhead.

Upon arrival, deputy chief Gerry Graveline said the department was not able to reach the fire because it was deep in the bush, and called SOPFEU for assistance. 

SOPFEU sent a team of three firefighters by helicopter to the fire. At 4:30 p.m. on Monday Morin said the SOPFEU firefighters were still working with municipal firefighters to put it out. 

“This happened in the last few hours. Everything is going well. They’ve got hoses up and are watering the fire,” she said Monday.

As of Tuesday morning, Graveline confirmed the fire, at that point just over one hectare in size, was being held by SOPFEU firefighters.

Bristol Mines fire also ‘being held’

An earlier forest fire began in Bristol on Sunday evening, in the forest northeast of chemin de Bristol Mines. 

By Tuesday afternoon, SOPFEU reported the fire, about five hectares in size, as “being held.”

Bristol fire captain Alex Mahon said the department got a call Sunday afternoon around 3 p.m. from someone in Ontario who had seen smoke above the tree line from across the river. 

Mahon said at first the department was not able to locate the source of the fire due to its remote and swampy location, but in the end found an alternate route to the source.

“We finally got the contacts of different landowners and [one of them] was able to bring us around a different way to get in,” he said, adding that the department was able to confirm the fire around 9 p.m.. 

Mahon said the Bristol department does not fight bush fires at night because of high levels of danger, but said firefighters were able to confirm the fire posed no danger of spreading at the time and advised SOPFEU of its location. 

“It covered a large area, [and] at the time it was more so a grass fire, it was just burning on the ground. It hadn’t gone up into the trees or anything at that moment,” Mahon said. 

SOPFEU flew over the area early Monday morning to assess the situation, sending a crew of three firefighters late in the morning to extinguish the fire. 

Mahon warned residents of Bristol of a complete ban on fires at the moment due to the dry conditions and elevated risk. 

“It doesn’t matter if it’s an approved outdoor apparatus or it’s outdoor bonfires, everything’s cancelled right now until we start getting some rain. It doesn’t take much for even the smallest fire to start, and the small fires grow quick,” he said. 

Thorne fire ‘extinguished’

The first of Pontiac’s weekend fires was reported in Thorne, between Sparling Lake and Johnson Lake, on Saturday afternoon. 

After several days of sending firefighters to work on controlling the fire (named Fire 201), SOPFEU declared the small 3.2-hectare forest fire to be “extinguished” on the afternoon of Aug. 12.

A fire with this classification shows “no remaining signs of combustion,” according to SOPFEU.

The cause of this fire was determined to be “recreation.”

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. 

“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.”

Fire near ZEC Pontiac ‘under control’

After responding to the first fire in Thorne, SOPFEU firefighters were traveling back to Val-d’Or when they discovered a second small fire had ignited some 80 kilometres north of Otter Lake on Saturday evening, on the western edge of ZEC Pontiac, which they determined had been caused by lightening.

As of 5 p.m. on Aug. 12, the 4.5-hectare fire was classified as “under control.” 

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

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

Very high fire risk to continue 

SOPFEU is forecasting high and very high 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 Monday.

“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.”