Skip to main content

Smoke From Canada Wildfires Reaches East End

Sat, 06/03/2023 - 10:14
Chief Darrell Locke of the Shelburne Volunteer Fire Department in Nova Scotia on Friday.
CBC.CA

Smoke was reported across the East End on Saturday morning, when residents awoke to the distinct smell of something burning. According to meteorologists with Environment Canada, the smoke is from a wildfire in the Province of Nova Scotia, where some 23,000 hectares of woodland (around 57,000 acres) have been burning in an out-of-control fire that started last weekend.

As of midweek, it was reported on the CBC that some 50 houses had been lost in the unprecedented fire, which started near the Town of Barrington, in Southwest Nova Scotia, and is being called the Barrington Lake fire. It has moved relentlessly eastward in Shelburne County, out of control, with strong winds pushing it onward. (Updated numbers of structures lost are not yet available.)

It was not the only large wildfire in Nova Scotia in recent days: Thousands of residents were evacuated last week when another blaze went out of control near the capital city, Halifax. The Shelburne fire has been called the largest in Nova Scotia history.

East Hampton Village police said that calls were coming in from Montauk to Bridgehampton, from people concerned about the origin of the fire.

The wind shifted overnight, between Friday and Saturday, becoming southwesterly and bringing the smoke down to Long Island. It was raining in Shelburne as of this reporting.

According to Bess Rattray, an East Hampton Village resident who lived in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, for six years and served as a captain with its fire department, more than 55 volunteer fire departments from around the province have converged in Shelburne County to try to slow the fire’s progress. These all-volunteer fire services have been aided by helicopters and water-carrying airplanes from other provinces and on loan from the United States and Costa Rica.

The chief of the Shelburne Volunteer Fire Department, Darrell Locke, has been a firefighter for 48 years, in Canada and abroad. He told the CBC that saving houses was the teams’ focus.

"We've gotten pushed out of situations for safety reasons that we've had to basically quickly unhook the hose from our trucks and run for our lives," he said. “This is nothing anybody down this way has seen before," he said. "This is nothing Nova Scotia has seen before. . . . It looks horrible in lots of places. Folks have lost everything."

On the Police Logs 03.14.24

Police were called Friday afternoon to investigate a report that people were camping illegally in the Grace Estate Preserve. They came upon three men from Nassau County who’d put up a tent and built a campfire. Police told them to put out the fire, then issued a ticket for open burning and directed them to leave immediately.

Mar 14, 2024

On the Police Logs 03.07.24

On Feb. 26, a few minutes before midnight, an officer patrolling Sag Harbor's Long Wharf discovered that a car had smashed into a wooden guardrail. Surveillance camera footage revealed that the damage was caused by a driver who, the very next day but in an unrelated incident, was charged with driving while intoxicated.

Mar 7, 2024

Grand Larceny Is Charged

A 28-year-old Amagansett woman was arrested Friday afternoon on felony charges of larceny, stemming from a Feb. 15 incident at the M&T Bank branch on Newtown Lane in East Hampton Village.

Mar 7, 2024

New Bill Aims to Stop Drugged Driving

The New York State Assembly is considering the Deadly Driving Bill, which would change the definition of “drug” in state law to include “any substance or combination of substances that impair, to any extent, physical or mental abilities,” making it easier to prosecute drug-related driving violations. Right now, if police cannot ascertain just what substance is involved, they may not be able to make an arrest in the first place.

Mar 7, 2024

Your support for The East Hampton Star helps us deliver the news, arts, and community information you need. Whether you are an online subscriber, get the paper in the mail, delivered to your door in Manhattan, or are just passing through, every reader counts. We value you for being part of The Star family.

Your subscription to The Star does more than get you great arts, news, sports, and outdoors stories. It makes everything we do possible.