Pictou County fire departments and DNR staff fought a number of fires in grass and woods in the area on Tuesday.
Five fires within Trenton, and seven fires along the Trenton connector resulted in the evacuation of homes along Viggo Holm Road and Abercrombie Road.
Residents in the Trenton connector area who were evacuated were later allowed to return to their homes.
By the time a reporter from The News was brought to the scene of one of the fires by New Glasgow police, the fires had been extinguished, leaving charred grass and brush along the roads.
“There are fires being called in from all over Pictou County today,” said Const. Ken Macdonald, community policing co-ordinator with the New Glasgow Regional Police.
MacDonald said the fires along the Trenton Connector were the result of a combination of the warm weather, dry conditions and high winds on Tuesday.
“It’s a recipe for grass fires, and it could have been a whole lot more dangerous, if not for the quick reaction of police, fire departments, Natural Resources, Nova Scotia Power and the Regional Emergency Management Organization,” said MacDonald.
Cpl. Mark Kellock with the Pictou County RCMP agreed with MacDonald’s assessment at the scene of a recently extinguished fire.
Kellock noted that on Tuesday afternoon, there were also fire calls in areas such as Piedmont Valley, Mount William, Millsville and Barneys River. Investigations into the causes of those fires are ongoing. In the case of the Piedmont Valley fire, two people are in custody and the matter is being investigated as an arson.
The fires along the Trenton Connector resulted in its closure as the New Glasgow police, RCMP, Lands and Forests, Natural Resources – and several Pictou County fire departments dealt with it.
The fires that took place in Trenton include a fire on Main Street, the intersection of Park Street and Duchess Avenue (which resulted in a house fire), Trenton Road and the intersection between Grandview Avenue and Acadia Street.
Those fires are being investigated and treated as suspicious, MacDonald noted.
Burn conditions in Pictou County are classified as yellow, or restricted, meaning that burning is permitted in the hours between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. MacDonald noted there is a bylaw that categorically forbids open burning in Trenton.
He emphasized the need for people to check burn conditions in their area before burning anything.
