Forest Fires Near James Bay, Quebec

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Forest Fires Near James Bay, Quebec

At present the forest fires plaguing the area near James Bay in Quebec are causing air quality problems in the area and as far away as Maine. According to CBC News on July 02, 2013, "A smog warning is in effect for most of southwestern Quebec ? from Gatineau to Montreal to Drummondville ? and a smog advisory has already been effect for eastern Ontario, which was expanded all the way through Toronto and Hamilton.

This current advisory is mostly due to smoke that is blowing into the warning areas from an extensive forest fire near James Bay, which has consumed around 250,000 hectares [~617,000 acres] of land so far."

A May 25 thunderstorm ignited the series of fires which have been burning ever since. The Bangor Daily News reports, "A northerly and northwesterly flow of air has pushed the smoke about 400 miles from northern Quebec near James Bay down to Maine. 'There is a front coming in that will push some of the smoke back, but it will not push out of northern Maine until later today [or] even tomorrow,' Webster [Martha Webster, Maine Department of Environmental Protection air quality meteorologist] said early Tuesday (July 2) afternoon.

This natural-color satellite image was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite on June 02, 2013. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS?s thermal bands, are outlined in red.

NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption: NASA/Goddard, Lynn Jenner

http://www.nasa.gov/content/forest-fires-near-james-bay-quebec/

 

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Re: Forest Fires Near James Bay, Quebec

Raging fires in northern Quebec isolate Eastmain, close mine

Civil protection authorities prepare 'Plan B' in case more evacuations required

CBC News
Posted: Jul 4, 2013 4:57 PM ET
Last Updated: Jul 4, 2013 11:25 PM ET

...
Quebec's forest fire protection agency, la Soci?t? de protection des for?ts contre le feu (SOPFEU), said the fire had spread over 257,000 hectares when last surveyed, although today it is likely closer to 300,000 hectares.
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Goldcorp shut down its ?l?onore mining project in the region, as prevailing winds pushed the fire ? still about 100 kilometres away ? in the direction of the mine site.

The head of civil protection for Abitibi-T?miscamingue and Northern Quebec, Jacques Viger, said about 800 employees were ordered to leave the mine site.

He said non-essential Hydro-Qu?bec crews have also been pulled off their work sites, and a rest stop at Kilometre 321 of the James Bay road between Radisson and Matagami has also been closed.

"There are a lot of people evacuated either to Radisson or to Val d'Or," said Viger.
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For a second straight day, damage to major transmission lines from the fires caused widespread blackouts elsewhere in Quebec.

Half a million Hydro-Qu?bec customers were without power at the peak of Thursday's outages, which began at around 5 p.m.
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On Wednesday, damage to the hydro line caused a major power failure that affected metro service in Montreal and cut off power at LaRonde, the amusement park on ?le Ste-H?l?ne.

"A major line, a major transmission line far up north basically went off line," Hydro-Qu?bec's chief executive officer, Thierry Vandal, explained early Thursday. "That has a cascading affect on a number of lines."
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Full text:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montr...e-east-main-hydro-youtube-maxime-duperre.html