Residents flee homes as crews battle wildfire in Halifax area

A major forest fire in the Spryfield area south of downtown Halifax forced as many as 1,000 people to flee their homes Thursday.

There were also unconfirmed reports thatas many as12 houses were destroyed by blaze, which began early Thursday afternoon.

Halifax Regional Fire Services confirmed that it had evacuatednearly 300 homes along a 20-street section in Spryfield where firefighters were battling a major fire.

About100 firefighters were battling the blaze in an area between Herring Cove Road and Purcell's Cove Road,and theycontinued into the evening.

The evacuation affected people living along the 600 block on Herring Cove Road and from Ferguson's Cove Road to Hebridean Drive along Purcell's Cove Road.

"What it means is the fire is moving very rapidly. There's two helicopters in the air right now and multiple apparatuses and firefighters on the scene right now," Halifax Fire Service spokesman Lloyd Currie said late Thursday afternoon of the municipal response.

Currie added that the situation has been changing since the fire began Thursday afternoon.

"The fire right now is paralleling Purcell's Cove Road, and in some sections it's crossed," Currie said. "I can't say the size of the fire right now, but it's very large and moving very quickly."

Halifax Regional Municipality spokeswoman Shaune MacKinlay said HRM had initially set up an evacuation centre at the Chocolate Lake Recreation Centre but decided to move it to Captain William Spry Centre, where there were more amenities for evacuees. The Red Cross was also there to assist residents, MacKinlay said.

Air tankers brought in

The Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources has called in additional air support from New Brunswick to help fire crews battle the blaze.

"Right now, we have three of our own helicopters," Walter Fanning, the department's director of forest protection services, told CBC News on Thursday evening.

"We've also called in air tankers from New Brunswick. These are fixed-wing aircrafts. They carry a fair amount of water, and we have three of those, plus there's a bird-dog aircraft."

The helicopters canscoop upwater from ponds and lakes in the area while the New Brunswick crews will land at Stanfield International Airport to refuel their water tanks, Fanning said.

One woman who lives in the Governor's Brook subdivision off Herring Cove Road said she was able towalk upright nearthe flames Thursday evening. Tessa Thomas said she was surprised that there were no emergency officials on hand to keep people away.

"The woods that the fire's in right now runs 400 metres from the houses in Governor's Brook, and if the fire changes, the fire, it will be in their backyards," Thomas said.

"And there's no firefighters. I had no problem getting to the smoke and the fires," she said.

Michele Raymond,the MLA for Halifax Atlantic,theriding affected by the fire, said a couple of houses in the area were destroyed.

"As you can see, we've all been moved out," Raymond said. "Children who are old enough are being told to leave.

"I, like anyone else, cannot go home as it seems to be moving this way."

Chigaya Smith, who lives on Fortress Drive just off the Purcell's Cove Road, said she and her husband were forced to flee their home when they saw black smoke coming their way.

"I called 911, asked what's the situation because we didn't hear anything. No announcement whatsoever," Smithsaid Thursday afternoon. "I asked the lady if she knows anything. She said no."

Smith believed her house was one of the ones that caught fire.

"All the papers, my passport, my husband's passport, all the valuable things [are] gone," Smith said.

A CBC-TV crew was forced to flee an area along Aarons Way just off Purcell's Cove Road when the wind shifted and sent flamesits way.