Forest fire, made worse by climate change, forces mass evacuation

The rain that started on June 2 came as blessed relief to crews fighting the Stein Lake forest fire in the Bocabec and Chamcook area not far from St. Andrews since the previous Sunday afternoon, May 28.
The blaze, which St. Andrews Fire Chief Kevin Theriault confirms spread from an all terrain vehicle that caught fire off South Glenelg Road, destroyed the home of Ed and Stephanie Stewart at Bocabec, forced the evacuation of 250 or more homes for two nights and burned more than 1,300 acres of forest south of Route 1, north of Route 127, northeast of St. Andrews. The fire reached five miles long and almost two miles at its widest point, Theriault said at a news conference on May 29 in St. Andrews.
People returned home on Tuesday, May 30, but the fire still burned out of control despite valiant efforts by 13 fire departments from as far as Oromocto and Harvey, as many as 55 crew from the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development, bulldozers, a Muskeg tracked vehicle, pumps, hoses and other gear and seven waterbombers at one point dropping what Roger Collet, forest ranger with the department's wildfire management section, calls "red stuff" to create a firebreak.
The rain and cooler temperatures allowed the crews to contain the fire and bring it under control by Monday, June 5, and downgrade it to "being patrolled" by the next day, with only 13 people left to keep watch.

Climate change making forest fires worse
David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, contends that warmer temperatures and swings in weather linked to climate change make forest fires worse across the country.
New Brunswick reported an unprecedented 15 new forest fires in one day, including Stein Lake, Premier Blaine Higgs said at the May 29 news conference. Many of these started from trees blown over power lines, he said, but added later, "We've had trees over power lines before and it didn't start a fire." Nova Scotia has had a far worse forest fire so far this year and, more recently, fires have broken out across Quebec. Western Canada is having an active forest fire season.
To Phillips, who lives and works in Ontario, the seeds for an active fire season in the Maritimes were sewn in September when Fiona, which he calls the most destructive hurricane in Canadian history, reached the region. "The winds were very, very strong, and it brought down a lot of trees, broken branches. A lot of trees were greatly foliaged. It was sort of late September, and then you had eight months to dry that broken branches and wood out, and so it was almost the region was a region of kindling," Phillips says.
New Brunswick reported its fourth warmest winter in 75 years, and precipitation 55% lower on average in February, March and April. With fuel and the right weather, all it took was ignition, "and ignition is either lightning or people." Lightning starts only 3% of forest fires in Nova Scotia, and maybe a bit more in New Brunswick, "So it's people, look at people," Phillips says.
New Brunswick reports that, as of June 6, a total of 2,171 acres have burned this year, more than half of it at Stein Lake, compared to 366 acres in all of last year, Phillips cites. "And we're only into May; we're not into the warm season."
The nine warmest years in New Brunswick over the past 75 years have happened since 2000, Phillips says. "And that is telling you that your climate has warmed up, and it is clearly warmer than in the past."
"You can be a denier of climate change but the bold facts are there. There's nothing about the politics of this, there's nothing about the emissions controls, it's all about taking the absolute, honest temperature and saying, 'What has it done in the last 75 years, three quarters of a century?' and nature is telling that it is warmer than it has been," he says.
Climate change might not cause erratic weather but, he says, "It only exacerbates it, makes it worse," adding, "It's sort of like giving weather steroids." Stronger winds blowing down more trees, less precipitation in winter and earlier starts to warm weather set the stage for forest fires, he says. "The problem is that it is hard to turn it around," with future weather patterns already "baked into the atmosphere."
Human beings will have to adapt by locating homes not so close to the woods, nor as close to the water with sea levels rising, cutting trees back from powerlines, updating building codes -- and adjusting their behaviour in the forests.
Higgs, St. Andrews Mayor Brad Henderson and others appealed people to exercise care with barbecues, burnt charcoal and fireworks. "If you don't have to be in the woods, don't be," Saint Croix MLA Kathy Bockus said at the May 29 news conference.
"And put fire bans and insist on it, and fine people hugely if they create a fire," Phillips says.
The Stein Lake fire burned in difficult terrain, including almost vertical climbs in some places, according to Theriault. "When they flew over earlier today in the helicopter, you could see where it jumped from hilltop to hilltop to hilltop, so the wind was pushing it," he said on May 29.

Family loses home
Firefighters responded to the emergency call to the ATV burning at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, Theriault says. The fire reached Ed and Stephanie Stewart's home on Bocabec Mountain at about 5 p.m., according to the son in law Shawn Mcleod. "They were home and they had probably an hour's advance before the fire got to their house," Mcleod said in an interview, explaining, "It crept up over the mountain and, once it hit the peak on the mountain, the wind just gusted it right down the hill into their house."
The Stewarts got out with their dog Pepper, but their cat Gorby bolted and made his own way safely to the home of Stephanie's parents, John and Mathilda Rigby, about 50 yards away. The Stewarts lost just about everything, but Ed, 55, saved most of the gear he needs for his work as an arborist -- climbing trees to cut branches from the top.
Mcleod says his father in law built this house about 25 years ago from lumber sawn from trees he cut himself. "He went back to work pretty much the next day. I think a lot of it was to keep his mind from wandering a lot and thinking about it," Mcleod says. The Stewarts are staying with the Rigbys. Ed Stewart collected model trains and built model boats that were lost in the fire. The house was not insured, so Mcleod started a GoFundMe campaign. Pledges totalled $10,655 towards a $20,000 goal by June 6. The GoFundMe pledges plus other donations should allow his in laws to rebuild, McLeod says.
The Rigbys live "just down in the field, but they have a fairly good sized pasture which, pretty well, I think saved them," Mcleod says.
Leigh Beaton and his wife Judy Johnson lost their motorcycle, but the flames spared their home at Bocabec Cove. "The fire went around us, and the reason is I put in a firebreak," Beaton, an armed forces veteran, said in an interview. He cut more than 120 trees and raked up the forest floor. The trees behind the break are now black, but the grass surrounding the house in the middle of the four acre property is still green.
Next door, the fire spared a modest sized building belonging to Robert Taylor, but he would have been happier had he lost this structure but saved the trees on his three acre property instead.
Taylor, from Orillia, Ont., bought this property about three years ago, planning to build a retirement home in three stages -- starting with the building housing mechanical and electrical services and bathroom. He was living in a tent big enough for him to stand up.
The fire destroyed the tent and burned the Tyvek paper off the nearly completed first stage of his house. However, "I've lost, you know, a thousand trees," he says, adding, "The whole allure was the background forest and everything."
He gave this interview through the zipped up screen of a much smaller tent. Trees will grow back but, at 78, Taylor says, "Not in my lifetime." He might plant cedars.