Nova Scotia blows through budget for fighting forest fires

This summer's forest fire season could cost Nova Scotia two to three times more than it budgeted to fight forest fires, says the province's Department of Natural Resources.

"Our typical budget is $650,000," regional services directorWalter Fanning said Friday.

"The majority of that was used up last week."

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'Expensive' water bombers

Firefighters have battled the stubborn Seven Mile Lake forest fire since Aug.4.

Water bombers from out of the province had to bebrought in to help.

"It is expensive to run those,"Fanning said, pegging the cost at $200,000 a day.

Very extreme conditions

The decision to call in help is based on the size of the forest fire and the conditions. A fire weather index of23 isconsidered extreme. This summer, that index in Nova Scotiais in the mid-40s.

Sometimes provincessuch as New Brunswick and Newfoundlandallow certain forest fires to burn themselves out, but Fanning said Nova Scotia doesn't have large enough remote areas to allow that.

"If we let the fire go here, it would ...very quickly start to impact people, homes and public safety," he said.

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