Fire near Sheet Harbour under control but cause under investigation

Fire crews from Nova Scotia'sDepartment of Natural Resources arein Malay Fallsnear Sheet Harbour after a forest fire burned about fourhectares of land Tuesday.

That fire is still not officially declared out as of Wednesday morning, but it is "contained and controlled," said Jim Rudderham,the department's operations manager forforest protection.

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The initialreport of the forest fire came at 3 p.m. Tuesday via a911 call.

Rudderham says Halifax Firewas there along with the department'screws and two helicopters.

Fire didn't spread

The fire started in a forested area that had been cut two years ago.The remnants of that cut were ignited in the blaze.

"There's always some residual slash that's around," Rudderham said."They don't take everything."

The fire didn't spread, butstayed inside that four-hectare area of cut forest.

"It just kind of bounced around inside as the winds moved around," Rudderham said.

No homes were ever in danger.

How did it start?

The job now is to find out how it started.

There was no lightning in the area, which leaves only one other possibility.

"Somebody was doing something they shouldn't have been doing," Rudderham said. "So we have an investigator looking into that."

About threemillimetresof rain fell in the area overnight, but Rudderham saidmuch more is need to really soak the ground and reduce the risk of more fires.

The area that burned on Tuesday was under a no-burn order at the time.

An update on the province's fire ban status will be issued at 2 p.m. today.