Province wide fire ban issued yesterday and three reported bonfires in St. John's later in the day

At a news conference this morning, Premier John Hogan says they’ll go through some bureaucratic mechanisms and fines are going up to some serious dollar numbers.

Although a province wide fire ban was issued yesterday, in light of out of control wildfires on the east coast, the St. John’s fire department had to respond to three bonfires last night. At a news conference this morning, Premier John Hogan says they’ll go through some bureaucratic mechanisms and fines are going up to some serious dollar numbers. He says they’re looking at all options, even banning the use of ATV’s in wooded areas. Meanwhile, in an update on the status of fires, Hogan says wind conditions are favourable today for firefighting and 3 bombers from New Brunswick are here today to fight the blazes. The fire in the Adam’s Cove area is now at 1432 hectares, which has doubled in size since yesterday, but has grown away from communities. 

Hogan says more good news is that the Southern Flank is in good shape and they are setting up a command post in Salmon Cove, even though the area is under an evacuation alert. The Holyrood fire is still about 22 hectares and the team managed to hold the fire overnight. Hogan says a new fire started yesterday afternoon in central about 2.8 kms from the Bay D’Espoir Highway, about 20 kms away from Grand Falls-Windsor, but it is blowing away from the town.  Meanwhile, Public Safety Minister John Haggie says what happened in Metro yesterday is nuts. There have been 193 wildfires in NL so far this year.