Threatened town now safe as Quebec makes progress on battling wildfires

The forest fire threatening the northwestern Quebec city of Normetal has been contained, the province's forest fire service said Sunday, as the fire situation in the province continued to improve.

Nicolas Vigneault, a spokesman for the forest fire service SOPFEU, said the arrival of firefighters from other provinces and from France -- as well as soldiers and recently-trained volunteers over the past week -- has allowed firefighters to fight the blazes more aggressively.

"All this help coming from other provinces, other countries, is really welcomed and, for us, it makes a really big difference in the field because we can attack the fires more aggressively," he said in an interview Sunday.

He said there are now more than 1,200 firefighters battling Quebec's woodland blazes, with around 100 more expected to arrive from the United States on Tuesday.

Quebec premier Francois Legault said last Monday there were less than 500 firefighters on the ground in the province.

In Normetal, more than 600 kilometres northwest of Ottawa where the flames came within 500 metres of parts of the town, Vigneault said firefighters no longer expect the blaze to progress any further.

But while containing the fire is a major step toward bringing it under control, he said the fight isn't over yet and a shift in winds or unfavourable weather could cause the situation to deteriorate.

The fire is being fought by a team of 40 firefighters from New Brunswick who are working autonomously, he said.

"We don't have to supervise them, we can just give them fires to fight and they're on their own, so they've given us a really, really good hand," Vigneault said.

Earlier in the day, the mayor of Chibougamau, Que., said the city's approximately 7,500 residents could begin returning to their homes on Monday morning.

The city, located around 500 kilometres northwest of Quebec City, was evacuated Tuesday evening.

But Mayor Manon Cyr warned the local hospital will only be providing basic services, grocery stores may not have been restocked and there is still smoke in the air.

"But what we can tell you is that you can recover your home, and that's the good news," she said in a video posted on the city's Facebook page.

Vigneault said the fire near Chibougamau remains out of control but is advancing much more slowly than it was at the beginning of the week.

Quebec's natural resources minister Maite Blanchette Vezina had said Sunday morning that no evacuation orders were being lifted in the "very short term."

But after Cyr's announcement, Blanchette Vezina's spokeswoman Flore Bouchon said in interview that the situation in Chibougamau has improved and that while the province is in agreement about the return, the municipality has final say on the evacuation order.

Blanchette Vezina told reporters in Quebec City there are still 131 fires burning in the province, but the number of those classified as out-of-control has dropped by 28 and now stands at 44.

"We've gone from a reactive mode to an offensive mode," she said.

The other priority fire for crews to fight is burning near Lebel-sur-Quevillon, Que., around 280 kilometres east of Normetal, Vigneault said.

Lebel-sur-Quevillon Mayor Guy Lafreniere said the fire has not moved in the past three days. The firefighters arriving from the U.S. are being sent to the area, he said in a live video broadcast on the city's Facebook page.

Vigneault said that with no rain expected before Tuesday, Monday will be difficult.

"We've got to be really careful," he said. "Tomorrow is going to be a challenge because there's been no rain for a while."

At least 2.5 millimetres of rain is needed to have an effect on an active fire, he said. "So we need quite a lot of rain to have an impact on the fires that are ongoing right now."

More than 10,000 square kilometres of forest has burned so far in Quebec this year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on June 11, 2023.