Northerners help to contain wildfire near Killarney
A group of friends doing work on a camp in MacGregor Bay helped contain what could have been a devastating fire in Killarney Provincial Park.
Last Friday, they were working away on the island when they noticed a glow on the horizon, as an empty cottage had caught fire and the blaze was at risk of spreading quickly.
Scott Beaumont and friends were at his camp doing work on the property, when they were turning in for the night. They could see a glow on the horizon and quickly determined it was a fire.
"We called 911 and that was our first instinct, but it was the middle of the night and it's a remote area, so we weren't really going to get an immediate fire response so we called everyone we knew in the area," said Beaumont.
He wondered if they were going to have to evacuate the area if the fire spread. They were processing what was starting to happen and opted to investigate after they got a text asking for help.
They took a boat across the channel in pitch-black darkness where they found his neighbour working away on the affected island with a pump.
"We could see quite a blaze on the peninsula of the island," he said.
"My neighbour had a portable fire pump, there were trees burning, root fires everywhere, and it had just jumped to Baie Fine on the mainland and was at risk of moving up to Killarney Park."
Beaumont says they dismantled the pump and took it to the mainland side of the island, repositioning it to extinguish the fire to try and keep it from spreading further.
Their focus then returned to the cabin.
"We knew no one was coming at that point, so it was up to us, everyone we knew was sleeping and it was just poor timing that way, we would have had a lot more help otherwise," he said.
They worked throughout the night with three pumps to try and put out the blaze and quickly created a perimeter around the property. Beaumont himself found a pump in a nearby boat house that was full of acorns and holes.
"At this point, we're starting to make progress on containment. We realized this was going to be a marathon so we sat there with three hoses pulling from the lake, and extinguished the fire over the course of six hours. My pump had been leaking on me for about four hours and felt hypothermic at that point because I was just soaked," he said.
"We were able to get it at the point where we could see just embers and propped the pumps against the rocks so they'd fire on the building."
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Birch Island Fire Department arrived later in the day to assess the scene.
Beaumont said, "If we hadn't arrived when we did, this fire would have burned for seven hours before anyone would have seen it, it really could have done some damage," he said. "You know you do what you think is right and we're just grateful that we were able to make a difference there and protect the area."
Once it spread to the mainland, the fire was named Sudbury 12 by the Ministry of Natural Resources.
"There was a structure fire on an island, as a result of windy conditions it created a spot fire on the main land," said fire information officer Isabelle Chenard.
"That fire on the mainland was deemed out that afternoon."
Chenard said the fire on the mainland was contained to a tenth of a hectare, but during windy conditions, embers can travel upwards of 2 kilometres.
"It's really important to be mindful of the fire hazard and windy conditions if there are any fires around because it can spread to that much of a distance," she said.
There is no word yet on what could have caused the fire that burned down the initial camp involved with Sudbury 12.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Alice Munro, Nobel literature winner revered as short story master, dead at 92
Nobel laureate Alice Munro, the Canadian literary giant who became one of the world's most esteemed contemporary authors and one of history's most honoured short story writers, has died at age 92.
Latest updates on air quality alerts, and when the smoke may reach Ontario and Quebec
Wildfires have led Environment Canada to issue air quality advisories for parts of B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, as forecasters warn the smoke could drift farther east.
Are these Canada's best restaurants? Annual top 100 list revealed
The annual list of Canada's top restaurants in the country was just released and here are the places that made the 2024 cut.
Attack on prison van in France kills 2 officers, inmate escapes
Armed assailants killed two French prison officers and seriously wounded three others in an attack on a convoy in Normandy on Tuesday and an inmate escaped, officials said.
Maximum payout for LifeLabs class-action drops from $150 estimate to $7.86
Canadian LifeLabs customers who filed an application for a class-action settlement began receiving their payments this week, though at a much lower amount than initially expected.
Steal a car, lose your driver's licence for 10 years under new Ontario proposal
Repeat car thieves may face lengthy licence bans under proposed changes to Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act.
$1.6B parts plant for Honda electric vehicle batteries coming to Niagara Region
A Japanese company has announced it will build an approximately $1.6-billion plant in Ontario's Niagara Region that will make a key electric vehicle battery component as part of Honda's supply chain in the province.
B.C. brings in law on name changes on day that child killer's new identity revealed
The BC NDP have tabled legislation aimed at stopping people who have committed certain heinous acts from changing their names.
Manitoba premier to visit areas impacted by wildfire
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew will get a close-up look at the devastation from a large wildfire burning in northern Manitoba Tuesday.