Amanda Hale and her family are back in their home southeast of Ompah after being evacuated on Sunday evening when a wildfire sparked and grew out of control on their property in North Frontenac Township.
That fire is under control, but still not out, North Frontenac’s mayor, Gerry Lichty, said in an interview on Thursday.
Hale and her two sons, as well as two members of her extended family, got the call that they could return home late Tuesday night.
On Wednesday morning, she and her family packed up the motel room that they had been provided by the township, and got a first look at their property after firefighters had spent days keeping their home and the homes of others in the area from burning.
“It’s very surreal,” Hale told the Whig-Standard on Thursday morning. “The kids have cried. Pumps were still going and we still have hoses in the driveway.”
Blackened grass and brush surround their two-storey home, and Hale can still see firefighters working to put out hotspots in the tree line not far away. On the first night back, she spotted an orange glow in the forest nearby, and called the fire department to make sure they knew about the hotspots.
“The house smelled a bit of smoke,” she said. “Our neighbours’ homes smell of smoke.”
Hale and her family told the Whig-Standard on Monday morning that a downed hydro line had sparked the fire Sunday shortly after 4 p.m., and the power outage had sent them outside, where smoke had been visible on the ground near the line.
The fire quickly moved into the surrounding fields and forest, and North Frontenac Township quickly issued an evacuation notice that affected around 15 to 20 people, the township’s mayor said Thursday.
“It was a really serious situation,” Lichty said.
He lives approximately three kilometres from where the fire started, and said that if the wind had been blowing a different way, that his home would have had to be evacuated.
North Frontenac Township quickly initiated its Emergency Control Group as the seriousness of the fire became evident, and set up two emergency evacuation centres for those who were displaced.
That Emergency Control Group is a committee made up of township staff, council members and the public who run drills annually to be ready for situations like the one that emerged Sunday night.
“Everybody worked together,” Lichty, who sits on the group committee, said. “Within half an hour (of getting the call), everyone had assembled.”
He’s never seen the group activated since he was first elected in 2022, but said that the most recent training exercise was built around a real-life fire that happened at Centennial Lake. That training helped the group make quick decisions about how to communicate with the public and what steps to take to keep people safe.
The group posted multiple updates every day on the township website to keep people informed on the wildfire situation. On Thursday morning, the site said that municipal crews were still on the scene extinguishing hot spots, but that the fire remains under control.
Road 509, which was closed during a portion of the fire suppression efforts, is now open again.
“Every incident teaches you something, but it all came together,” Lichty said. “The evacuation centre was set up, a neighbour was setting up beds, others brought food, we brought subs and the OPP gave food vouchers. People were well fed.”
As of Thursday afternoon, on its interactive wildland fire map, the Ministry of Natural Resources identifies the North Frontenac fire — labelled Haliburton 53 — as active, but under control, and approximately 37.5 hectares in size.
Lichty said MNR firefighters who responded to a call for assistance from the township had moved out by Wednesday, but local crews continue to work.
Part of the reason the MNR’s help was needed was that fire departments with mutual aid agreements — Central Frontenac, Kaladar, and South Frontenac — were busy battling their own regional fires when the fire started near Ompah on Sunday.
Help arrived when it could, Lichty said. He doesn’t know how many firefighters responded to the scene, but North Frontenac Township’s department is approximately 30 volunteer members.
All hands were needed, as the fire spread so quickly due to dry leaves on the trees, that would catch fire and then blow off the branches to spread flames, Lichty described.
“The fire was so bad that when I talked to an MNR official on site on Tuesday, he said that even water bombers wouldn’t have stopped this,” Lichty said. “It was moving so fast.”
Lichty praised all the firefighters involved.
“The crews did a phenomenal job,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how much equipment you have, how shiny and new it is. It’s the men and women on the ground…. I have great respect for fire, and for people who deal with it. All I can say is, they done good. This fire was controlled because of everybody pitching in, and the rain and winds dropping.”
Hale echoed the mayor’s feelings. She’s exhausted, but grateful to the volunteer firefighters who saved her home.
“It was everyday people going out of their way to make sure our home and our neighbours’ houses were all safe,” she said. “It’s amazing, it’s astounding, and they need more credit.”
As the family settles back in at home with their two dogs, preparing to clean items that smell of smoke, Hale says she feels grateful to live in North Frontenac Township.
“Members of the township were checking on us. The community came in and gave us food, money. Firefighters checked on us.
“I’m so glad I live in such a small community.”