Quebec wildfire situation 'stable' for coming days; evacuees stuck until next week

Quebec's precarious wildfire situation is expected to remain stable over the next 48 hours but residents displaced by the raging forest fires likely won't be able to return home until early next week, Premier Francois Legault said Thursday.

Quebec's precarious wildfire situation is expected to remain stable over the next 48 hours but residents displaced by the raging forest fires likely won't be able to return home until early next week, Premier François Legault said Thursday.

"We have (as of) today, 13,500 people that have been evacuated, we think that it'll be stable in the next few days," Legault told a briefing, but said that evacuees from Chibougamau and Lebel-sur-Quévillon, Que., which account for a large number of those displaced, won't be able to return until Tuesday at the earliest.

Quebec's wildfire fight was focused Thursday in the province's northern and western regions, where flames had reached the doorstep of a municipality of roughly 800 people. Authorities said a wildfire was within 500 metres of Normétal, Que., located 720 kilometres northwest of Montreal, in the Abitibi region.

The province's forest fire prevention agency — Société de protection des forêts contre le feu (SOPFEU) — said it was confident the small community could be protected, with winds less strong than first feared.

Seven aircraft had been working in the area to reduce the pace of that fire.

"As of yesterday, it was at about 1,500 metres from the community and it has gotten closer very slowly all the day," said Sylvain Tremblay, a SOPFEU official. "But it was a slow burn and we managed to to make some drops with the bombers to slow the fire even more so."

Tremblay said although some parts of the fire are close to the community, it remained stable.