Hydro-Qubec evacuates northern Quebec facilities due to fire concerns

Two majorHydro-Qubec facilities will be operating with a skeleton crew for the next few days as nearby fires cause concern.

Hydro is evacuating most staff from the LG-3 and LG-4 sites in northern Quebec,a total of about 200 people.

A spokesperson says the facilities are not directly threatened by forest fires, but the only road in and out of the area could be at risk and planes would not be able to land as easily.

"The Transtaga road is affected in some places by forest fires, soto avoid ending up in an unfortunate situation we decided as a precaution to get our workers out of there," Hydro-QubecspokespersonFrancis Labb told Radio-Canada.

Staff were flown out of LG-3 Tuesday, and 90 people are expected to leaveLG-4 Wednesday.

Hydro-Qubec says the situation will not affect power production as many systems can be run remotely. Ahandful of employees will be staying behind to oversee operations.