New Brunswick·UpdatedSeveral wildfires were still out of control on Wednesday in New Brunswick, according to an update from the province, and first responders are tired after more than two weeks trying to claim flames at various scenes.Morning update shows 6 of 24 fires are out-of-control CBC News · Posted: Aug 20, 2025 10:25 AM EDT | Last Updated: 3 minutes agoAround 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, there were 24 active fires in New Brunswick (Victoria Walton/CBC)Several wildfires were still out of control on Wednesday morning in New Brunswick, according to an update from the province.The update said there were 24 active fires and six out of control. The province’s fire watch dashboard, however, fluctuates often, depending on the status of the fires at the time.The Beaver Lake Stream fire in Northumberland County is 238 hectares, according to the dashboard, and the Chief’s fire is listed at 218 hectares. The Chief’s fire, in northern New Brunswick, is also listed as a fire of note.A fire of note, according to the government, is one “requiring significant resources or threatening homes or critical infrastructure.”The Oldfield Road fire, which straddles the northern edge of Miramichi, is still listed as a fire of note, despite being contained at 1,403 hectares.A part of Route 8, which has been closed with a detour because of the Oldfield Road fire, has since reopened, according to a Facebook post from Miramichi East MLA Michelle Conroy.As of Tuesday, there was a detour on Route 8, pictured here. But on Wednesday morning, Miramichi East MLA Michelle Conroy posted that the route had reopened. (Victoria Walton/CBC)First responders ‘going on 2-plus weeks of full-on firefighting’Firefighters and co-ordinators who have been working for weeks have been met with gruelling conditions, and the man leading the strategy on the ground says first responders are tired.”Everybody is going on two-plus weeks of full on firefighting so it’s definitely on our minds,” Danny Goddard, an operations section chief with the Department of Natural Resources, said Tuesday.Crews responding to fires are typically working from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., Goddard said. But many will stay past sundown if the goal is to contain a certain blaze that day.”To be on the ground, it’s very chaotic,” he said. “That’s a juggling act as well … to try to keep everybody in there, in the strategy and keep their head space in it.”Goddard has been on scene at the Oldfield Road fire in the Miramichi area since it first started burning. Efforts to keep large fires contained while addressing new fires across the province is difficult, he said.”Everybody needs a rest, so we’re trying to cycle our resources out and give people a rest and bring them back.”Danny Goddard, an operations section chief with the Department of Natural Resources, said he has been on scene at the Oldfield Road fire since it first started burning. (Victoria Walton/CBC)Goddard said a national standard for emergency responses of this kind says workers can work about 14 days before getting time off. He said firefighters who have come from outside the province, including from Ontario, are allowing local firefighters to rest.”[They] will be here for 14 days and then return to their agency,” he said. “They’re making our job a lot easier.”When he isn’t on emergency scenes, Goddard is also a wildfire science officer. He said weather conditions have been exacerbating things for firefighters, and some have dealt with heat exhaustion in the past week.”I’ve never seen conditions this dry on the East Coast,” he said.And although the rain that some parts of the province have seen in recent days has helped, it has not been enough to make a real difference.”We had 13 [millilitres] on one fire and the next day we had trees torching,” Goddard said. “So when we get into these drought periods, we need like 60-plus [millilitres] of rain to really make a difference on our fires.”Nonetheless, Goddard said he feels better about the wildfire situation overall but believes teams still need to prepare for the worst.”We have some upcoming weather and we’re really going to assess the fire behaviour, and how the fire is acting, to see what we’re going to look forward to Friday, Saturday.”Temperatures lower this weekA provincewide burn ban remains in place and activities in the woods, including campfires and the use of ATVs, are still prohibited. But on Tuesday, the province announced it would be allowing some businesses back on Crown land with strict conditions.Last week, New Brunswick saw hot and dry conditions with some areas reaching humidex values in the 40s for multiple days.But this week temperatures are significantly lower. New Brunswick’s hotspot on Tuesday was St. Stephen, where the high was about 23 C.The New Brunswick government said that at this time, no livestreamed update on wildfires is planned for Wednesday.With files from Victoria Walton
Firefighting crews tiring as wildfires still burn out of control in N.B.
