Crews make more progress on Saint Andrews-area fire

More progress has been made in containing a massive forest fire near Saint Andrews.

Mayor Brad Henderson said the Stein Lake fire was 45 per cent contained as of Saturday morning.

A day earlier, the 540-hectare fire was about 35 per cent contained, according to provincial officials.

Henderson said some of the hotspots did ignite on Friday due to the increase in wind.

“Crews were able to extinguish these locations including the ‘spot fire’ location near Gowan Road,” Henderson said in a Facebook post.

“It goes without saying that the rain helped, and hopefully will continue to aid the effort.”

Forecasters say the Saint Andrews area could receive up to 30 millimetres of rain by mid-day Sunday.

Hotspots are being GPS coordinated from the air and crews are hiking through the woods to address them, the mayor said.

At the same time, bulldozers continue to build a fire line around the area in order to fully contain the fire.

Officials have said even though the Stein Lake fire is not growing, it will continue to be listed as out of control until it has reached 100 per cent containment.

There were 13 active fires in the province as of Saturday morning, though the Stein Lake blaze was the only one considered out of control. The Department of Natural Resources said the remaining fires are “being patrolled.”

To date this year, there have been 176 forest fires which have burned more than 878 hectares of land. That is compared to the 10-year average of 158 fires and 286 hectares of land burned.

All of New Brunswick remained under a burn ban as of Saturday morning.