An estimated 14,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in areas surrounding Nova Scotia’s capital city, Halifax, as strong winds are causing local wildfires to spread rapidly, according to Halifax Deputy Fire Chief David Meldrum.
Meldrum told reporters on May 29 that the evacuations began escalating in the afternoon the day prior after wildfires began spreading and destroying a number of homes in the areas of Tantallon and Hammonds Plains, which are just northwest of downtown Halifax.
Meldrum said firefighters first received a report of a fire in Tanatallon’s Westwood subdivision on Sunday afternoon and that the first-responding units to arrive discovered a “very large and fast-building fire.”…