Fire hard to contain
Six water bombers flew overhead as fire departments from Fredericton, Oromocto, Hoyt and New Maryland fought a forest fire outside of Fredericton on Tuesday afternoon.
The blaze, which was first reported at 2:16 p.m., began as a small brush fire near the Richmond Estates area of Oromocto but quickly intensified.
By 3:30 p.m., flames had engulfed 14 hectares of land and officials had closed a section of the Trans-Canada Highway due to heavy smoke.
Traffic on the highway between Oromocto and Fredericton was rerouted through Lincoln. The highway was reopened Tuesday evening.
There were several homes nearby, but nobody was evacuated.
Cindi Abbott is the emergency information officer for the Town of Oromocto.
She said winds gusting up to 50 kilometres an hour were a factor in the fire.
"It was extremely windy today and that made things worse," she said. "Just as we saw the fire being extinguished in one area, we would see the blazes start again in another area,"
The winds caused the fire to spread from a clearing near Dexter Street westward towards the Trans-Canada Highway.
In response, the Department of Natural Resources dispatched all six of its water bombers to the scene shortly after 2:30 p.m.
They first dropped retardant around the perimeter of the fire and later attacked the fire itself.
The fire was considered under control and the water bombers were called off by about 6:30 p.m.
"It was an effective response," said Gail Duncan, a spokeswoman with the Department of Natural Resources.
"The water bombers got here as quickly as they could and started putting water and fire retardant on the fire and that helped to get it under control quickly."
Fifty firefighters were still on the scene Tuesday night.
Duncan said even though the worst is over, the fire is still a concern.
"Fires like this generally have to be monitored for a few days," she said. "It will calm down this evening but in the morning - when we get warm temperatures again and winds - it could cause a flare up and certainly this fire could become an issue again."
Scott Ledoux owns a house just off Old Camp Road in Oromocto, a stone's throw away from the centre of the fire. He spent much of Tuesday afternoon on his front porch watching flames which at times were as close as 30 metres away.
"I saw smoke from my office, which is about two kilometres from here, and I came home immediately,'' Ledoux said.
"There were several fire trucks already here and you could see smoke and flames everywhere.
"I was worried because it was pretty close to my house."
The flames around Ledoux's house were largely extinguished by supper time, and the mood was light on his porch where he recorded the continuing efforts of firefighters with a camcorder and sat with several friends.
"I feel pretty safe now," he said. "The fire department has done a good job with this and they seem to have it under control."
The Department of Natural Resources plans to launch an investigation into the cause of the fire immediately.
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