Crews continue to battle out-of-control wildfire in Yarmouth County

Crews are heading back out Wednesday morning to fight an out-of-control fire in Nova Scotia's Yarmouth County that has grown significantly since it began earlier this week. 

The fire near South Horseshoe Lake in eastern Yarmouth County measured roughly 1,000 hectares in size on Tuesday night, according to a provincial official, an increase from an estimate of 25 hectares earlier in the day.

"The numbers will most likely fluctuate until we knock the smoke down to get a better visual on the fire and can measure it accurately," Karen McCurdy, wildfire prevention officer for the Department of Natural Resources, said in an interview Wednesday with CBC's Information Morning.

McCurdy said the fire, which began Monday afternoon, is still considered out of control and there are 40 firefighters expected to be on the scene Wednesday morning.

A CL-415 water bomber from Newfoundland and Labrador, along with two helicopters dropping water on the flames, helped with the efforts Tuesday. The plane is expected to be used again Wednesday.

The fire is "actively still moving but with the humidity last night, overnight and this morning, it's around 80 per cent, and the light winds, that's going to help decrease the fire spread," said McCurdy.

Satellite images shared on social media showed smoke from the wildfire drifting west across Yarmouth County and into the Gulf of Maine. 

"The smoke certainly was an issue across the province and the smoke plume was moving into a lot of the communities down in Yarmouth County," said McCurdy. "I'm not sure today what the situation may be for that with the lighter winds,"

She said in the last two days, there were roughly 1,415 fires across the province which were the result of low humidity and high winds. However, they were put out fast.

Currently, there are burn restrictions in the counties of Queens, Shelburne and Yarmouth. 

McCurdy said the province is still investigating the fire but it is confident it was caused by humans since there has been no lightning in the remote area in the past week.

"The only access to the area is by all-terrain vehicles. So it would have to be somebody either going out fishing or on an all-terrain vehicle and in the area," she said. 

"It could have been somebody stopped for lunch and had a campfire, smoking along the riverbank, or it could have even been accumulation of debris on an exhaust on an all-terrain vehicle."

She said crews were pulled from the line for safety reasons as the CL-415 water bomber helped with firefighting efforts Tuesday.