The Mayor of Chapais, Isabelle Lessard, held a press briefing Thursday at 6 p.m.
The evacuation notice is maintained for a second night for residents of Chapais, in Nord-du-Québec, where a major forest fire is still raging a few kilometers southwest of the city.
That's what Chapais Mayor Isabelle Lessard announced during a press briefing that began at 6 p.m. Thursday.
At the level of the evacuation, unfortunately, this evening it will always be maintained, we are not lifting the evacuation. People are urged to stay in Chibougamau or where they have been to stay safe as the fire is still uncontrolled and still threatening, she said from City Hall in Chapais.
As of Wednesday, 800 people in 500 residences had been evacuated. The southern half was targeted.
I hear the disappointment of several citizens to hear this news, not to be able to return to work this evening, but tomorrow the situation will be reassessed and we can then give you some news, hoping for the best, he said. she continued.
Beds have been installed at the Chibougamau arena.
According to estimates from the Society for the Protection of Forests against Fire (SOPFEU) available online at 6 p.m., the area of the main fire is still around 1,400 hectares (14 km2). It is still considered unmastered. Two other minor fires were listed.
Thursday afternoon, hundreds of people were waiting for instructions from the city, to know if a return to the evacuated homes was possible. Evacuation is mandatory for resort areas, but strongly recommended for residents of the southern part of the city.
City councilor Caroline Belleau is among the evacuees in Chapais.
Several of between them still kept smiling.
Me, I went to my parents, my family is here in Chibougamau, two or three blocks away, so they are hosting us until we return home, which we hope will be soon, said the counselor. municipal in Chapais Caroline Belleau. She was met at the emergency center, at the Chibougamau arena.
I was warned that on the south side, it had to be evacuated. We evacuated first with my mother, my father wanted to stay to wait for the firefighters, but in the end, the smoke was too big, so he decided to go get my grandmother. We all went camping for everyone's safety, said Mélodie Pinet, 16.
La family of Mélodie Pinet, 16, was evacuated.
With information from Annie-Claude Brisson
The forest fire in Chapais still out of control
