Nova ScotiaFire crews in Annapolis County say they’ve made significant progress battling the Long Lake fire, and more families will be able to return home Tuesday morning.Status of Long Lake fire upgraded to ‘held,’ which means it is not likely to grow unless conditions changeCarolyn Ray · CBC News · Posted: Sep 08, 2025 3:23 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours agoThe Long Lake wildfire was sparked by lightning nearly one month ago. (Province of Nova Scotia)Fire crews in Annapolis County, N.S., say they’ve made significant progress battling the Long Lake wildfire, and more families will be able to return home Tuesday morning.The fire, which has been burning since Aug. 13 and is estimated at 8,468 hectares, is still not under control. But its status has been upgraded to “held,” which means it is not likely to grow unless conditions change, the Department of Natural Resources announced Monday.Nearly 20 families will be allowed to go back to their properties, with about 110 civic addresses remaining under an evacuation order.”We really appreciate the amount of work that’s been put in to get this fire to this point,” said Dustin Enslow, the deputy warden of the Municipality of the County of Annapolis.He said it was a big morale booster when the first phase of re-entry was announced last week, lifting the evacuation order for 360 civic addresses.”This will just continue that.”The next re-entry zone includes homes on Morse, Thorne and Neaves roads. No homes were lost in the area. People who live there can show identification at a checkpoint on Morse Road starting at 9 a.m. AT.Natural resources officials have said a lightning strike caused the fire, which broke out on the north side of Long Lake, about 20 kilometres east of Annapolis Royal, N.S. It has destroyed 20 homes and about a dozen other structures.The department is asking the remaining evacuees to be patient.Jim Rudderham, director of fleet and forest protection, said the fire will have to be upgraded to under control before they can return.Rudderham said the area received about nine millimetres of rain on Sunday night, which helped significantly. But he said it’s still too dangerous for people to return to the original evacuation zone.”You’ll see trees falling over because the root balls are damaged and you can’t see that until they fall on top of you,” he said. “You’ll see power poles burned down. There’s still a lot of stuff there that makes it unsafe for people to go home.”Meanwhile, Rudderham expects conditions to be safe enough this week to finally accommodate the removal of a helicopter that crashed into shallow water at Fivefinger Lake on Aug. 15 while fighting the fire.A pilot from the Department of Natural Resources was injured when the helicopter went down.Rudderham said they’ll salvage the machine in co-ordination with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada so it can investigate the cause of the crash.”Our pilot is recovering nicely,” he said.ABOUT THE AUTHORCarolyn Ray is a videojournalist who has reported out of three provinces and two territories, and is now based in Halifax. You can reach her at Carolyn.Ray@cbc.ca
More Annapolis County wildfire evacuees to return home on Tuesday
