(Government of NL/YouTube)
The forest fire in Conception Bay North grew by only about 200 hectares since yesterday but winds are forecast to pick up this afternoon and tonight to 20-40 km/h from the southwest – and that is a cause for concern in terms of fire behavior, says Premier John Hogan.
The Holyrood fire and the one in central remain roughly the same size.
The province’s firefighting capacity has roughly doubled with the addition of outside resources including aircraft from Quebec and 20 firefighters from Ontario.
There is a province-wide ban on outdoor fires but not everyone has been adhering to it, so Crime Stoppers is offering up some encouragement to people to refrain from such activity.
The normal cap on a reward for a tip is $2,000 but anyone who provides information which leads to the arrest of a suspect is eligible for a reward of $5,000. Crime Stoppers says this is such a serious situation that a higher reward structure is justified.
About 3,000 people have been evacuated from their communities, so the provincial government is offering each person a payment of $500 to help them through the crisis. The fund will be administered by the Red Cross and anyone who applies has to be registered with the relief organization.