There are encouraging signs coming out of central Newfoundland as wildfires appear to be holding steady in size. Crews are carrying out an assessment later today, however, provincial fire marshal Jeff Motty says overnight reports indicate the fires have remained stable, with four fires on the board. Motty says they hope to declare a fire near Deer Pond once they can do a visual assessment. Three are still labeled “out of control,” but Moti feels like they’ve turned a corner. He says they were in initial attack mode, but are in the bubble of transitioning to a sustained attack, which includes containing the fire and clearing the perimeter. He says the Paradise Lake and Bay d’Espoir Highway fires will take a little longer to change from out of control, however, he hopes they can make a change in status to the Southern Lake Access Road fire as early as today. He says they directed a significant amount of resources to that fire, focusing on South Lake when it was too dangerous for crews to fight the larger fires.
