An air tanker from the Northwest Territories flies over the area where firefighters are battling the Long Lake wildfire in Nova Scotia's Annapolis County, outside the community of West Dalhousie, N.S., on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese
An air tanker from the Northwest Territories flies over the area where firefighters are battling the Long Lake wildfire in Nova Scotia's Annapolis County, outside the community of West Dalhousie, N.S., on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese
WEST DALHOUSIE - Scott Tingley with Nova Scotia's Department of Natural Resources says it's rare to be simultaneously monitoring a hurricane while fighting wildfires in the province.
The Long Lake wildfire in the Annapolis Valley remains out of control, and is composed of a series of fires that cover roughly 32 square kilometres of land. Meanwhile Hurricane Erin, tracking northward between the Carolinas and Bermuda, is expected to bring strong winds to Nova Scotia by Friday into Saturday — but no rainfall.
"I've been doing this for over 20 years and it's the first time I've encountered this," he told reporters about the double threat of a wildfire and a hurricane. "But we're used to getting rugged weather in this part of the country, so we've dealt with high winds."
Firefighters in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley have managed to keep the largest fire in the province from growing any bigger for two consecutive days. Dave Steeves with the Department of Natural Resources told reporters Wednesday "there's a lot of good stuff going on" with fire suppression efforts.
Twenty-two firefighters are in the region from Ontario, five are from P.E.I., 25 are volunteer firefighters from within Nova Scotia, and 95 members of the Department of Natural Resources are tackling the blaze. "And there's an extensive amount of heavy machinery out there, and everybody is working diligently to say the very least," Steeves said.Â
Similarly to Tuesday, firefighters are focused on attacking the northern edge of the blaze that's nearest to houses and other structures in the West Dalhousie area, where about 100 homes were evacuated over the weekend.
Tingley said, "Almost all of the energy is being put, right now, in and around the vicinity of the homes and particularly where the fire crossed the West Dalhousie Road. That's the top priority, where there's homes and infrastructure that could be threatened."
Andrew Mitton, with Nova Scotia's Department of Emergency Management, said there are 61 structures in the vicinity that are outfitted with sprinklers as a form of fire protection.
Steeves, meanwhile, said crews are concerned about the "serious drying trend" they're seeing as the existing fire eliminates humidity in the area, and they are looking out for the strong winds forecast to accompany Hurricane Erin.
A report by Environment Canada on Wednesday said, "as the very broad circulation of Erin tracks well south of Nova Scotia, there will likely be some high altitude cloud cover and gusty northerly winds in the afternoon and evening especially near the Atlantic coast. No rainfall is expected."
In Newfoundland, the 107-square kilometre wildfire near Kingston remained out of control as of Wednesday evening. In the morning the province issued an update saying the Paddy's Pond fire near St. John's was "being held."Â
In New Brunswick, five wildfires remained out of control.Â
This report by ºÃÉ«tvwas first published Aug. 20, 2025.
