The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary (RNC) has charged a 20-year-old man for allegedly intentionally setting brush fires in St. John’s while a fire ban is in place and the province grapples with wildfires.
On Tuesday, the St. John’s Regional Fire Department responded to a number of brush fires in downtown St. John’s within blocks of one another.
No injuries or structural damage were reported. The suspect is set to appear in a Newfoundland court on Thursday to face charges of arson with the disregard of human life.
Mark Lawlor, Newfoundland and Labrador’s provincial fire duty officer, says the largest of the province’s out-of-control wildfires continues to gain ground, helped by dry, windy conditions.
Lawlor says the fire near the coastal town of Kingston, N.L., on the Avalon Peninsula, has expanded to about 52 square kilometres.
He says it remains unclear how many homes or cabins in the area have been destroyed by the fire.
Thousands of people in Newfoundland and Labrador’s capital and elsewhere in the province are under evacuation alerts as wildfires continue to threaten communities.
About 5,400 residents in two areas of St. John’s were told on Tuesday to be ready to leave their homes at a moment’s notice.
They joined roughly 15,000 others in parts of the nearby communities of Paradise and Conception Bay South who were placed under evacuation alerts a day earlier.
— With files from The Canadian Press