A Wildfire Knocked Out The Power of Campobello and 2 Other Islands

Around 1pm today we lost all power on the island. And this time it wasn’t any storm knocking over trees, but a wildfire on the Canadian mainland causing damage to the power company’s facilities. It has been bone dry all around and it isn’t uncommon that wildfires can pop up. The power outage affected Deer Island, Campobello Island and the island of Grand Manan. CBC reports that 17 wildfires had sprung up, most of them on Saturday due to careless people behaviour. There has been a ban on burning any camp and garden fires, however the fact that those fires sprang up during the weekend indicates that they are a result of people doing camping and grilling. Our store had closed during the power outage so I went to Lubec for getting a few batteries for our old transistor radio. Canada Customs had a generator running when I returned back so passport checks were not affected. Our supper was cooked on our propane camp stove and our water can be hauled up from a big open well we have in the basement. It is good to be largely independent of modern power supply. Even without the propane stove we could have cooked on our wood stove which has been burning all day long. Love that! After supper I turned on our radio and listening to tunes from a by-gone era, I fell asleep in our IKEA chair. When I came to again my senses did register that our window light was on and for ever so long I wondered why Bea had turned on the light during daylight hours, until it finally occurred to me that power was back. I felt so stupid but realized that I had been still half asleep, when my eyes popped open. Power had been gone for about 7hrs.   Wildfires break out in southern N.B. About 25 firefighters were battling wildfires in southern New Brunswick on Sunday. Roger Collet, the province's wildfire prevention officer, says the most significant fire burned 12 hectares near the community of St George. A water bomber was brought in to help extinguish that one. Most of the fires started on Saturday. "I think we're looking at 17 new starts yesterday alone," Collet said. "It's been quite dry here we haven't had any rain for at least two weeks now, so our surface fuels are just ready to go." All fires in New Brunswick are now under control. Officials say it's too early to know what caused them, but are reminding people there's a province wide ban on burning.