Fires in the Halifax Regional Municipality

The municipality has a Residential Property Tax Exemption Program in place for properties that have been destroyed or partially destroyed by the fires, as determined by Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency (HRFE).

The municipality calculates property tax based on the property assessment value determined annually by Property Valuation Services Corporation (PVSC), the assessment authority for Nova Scotia.

For the Residential Property Tax Exemption Program, PVSC will conduct a review of properties HRFE has identified as being destroyed or partially destroyed by the fires to account for the damage sustained, and provide revised opinions of value to the municipality, which the municipality will use to recalculate your property tax, if eligible.

For more information, visit our property tax web page. 

Egress routes are part of the planning process. Some communities were built in the past with no secondary egress routes.

On Tuesday, June 6, Regional Council directed staff to develop a staff report on developing egress for the Westwood Hills subdivision.

A dry hydrant is a permanent water pipe that allows the fire crews to get water from natural water sources, such as lakes and rivers. In some areas where there is no natural water source, the municipality uses underground water tanks.

Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency have added dry hydrant locations to their digital mapping layers – which allows crews to access them while responding to a call. The mapping layers also include hydrants maintained by Halifax Water, private hydrants, and underground water tanks. 

The municipality’s priority was to provide as many residents as possible with information about the status of their properties as soon as possible. To that end, residents in the area of significant impact, whose homes had been destroyed, were asked to register with 311 so that municipal staff could contact them. The intent was that once they registered, calls would be  made to advise them of the status of their properties. If there was no answer, follow up calls were to be made. Out of respect, staff did not leave voice messages advising residents that their home was destroyed. If efforts to call were unsuccessful, residents were contacted via email.

In the end, not all residents were contacted by phone due to the magnitude of the task and not enough staff to make the calls in a timely manner prior to the municipality’s decision to provide a site visit of the area of significant impact.  The decision to organize a site visit was made on very short notice as staff were receiving multiple requests from impacted residents who, understandably, wanted to be allowed to return to their neighbourhoods to check on their properties.

As soon as information was received from the Incident Commander that the fire situation was safe enough to conduct a site visit for residents to view their destroyed or damaged properties staff quickly began organizing the visit.  At this point, the decision was made to switch to contacting residents by email as the fastest means to reach as many people as possible to ensure they were aware of the site visit.  As such, some residents were not contacted directly by phone to advise them that their homes were destroyed.  Instead, they were advised of the site visit and that they could come to the Canada Games Centre to confirm the status of their property.   

Opportunities to view images of destroyed or damaged properties were set up at the Canada Games Centre and site visits to the area were arranged on Friday, June 2 and Saturday, June 3 for residents in the area of significant impact who had registered with 311 to view their properties. 

The municipality acknowledges that this was not the best way to inform residents that had gone through the traumatic experience of losing their homes.  This is a key lesson that was learned and it will inform the response to future recovery situations following a crisis event like the Tantallon wildfires.

Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency are in their second year of implementing a Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) fire strategy. This is a multi-year strategy and includes the following tactics, some of which are already underway

• Increasing capabilities to fight fires in the wildland urban interface. Installing at least one new dry hydrant every year.
• Inspecting and testing existing dry hydrants every year.
• Developing and maintaining an inventory list of all dry hydrant locations.
• Annually practicing tanker shuttles for securing a water supply in the all rural fire districts.
• Validating, in 2022 by the Fire Underwriters (FUS), Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency’s tanker and shuttle certification.
• Researching new technology for early notification in this fiscal year.
• Conducting public education and critical inventory assessments in the WUI.
• Training additional FireSmart assessors and conducting FireSmart Assessments upon request as resources allow.
• Increased training, equipment, and tactics for structural firefighters to do wildfire activities.
• Purchasing new equipment specifically to mitigate wildland fire risks.

Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency (HRFE) only used water as part of its response to the fires.  During the firefighting efforts, it came to the municipality’s attention that a fire department from a different jurisdiction, that was supporting HRFE efforts, used Class “A” Foam Concentrate. The foam was diluted with equal parts water, to combat the wildfire in a small area during the first day. There are no environmental or safety issues from the use of the foam. This was communicated to the public as soon as the municipality was made aware.

Re-entry plans were determined on a day-by-day basis – and any potential reduction of the evacuation zones were based on a number of variables, including temperature, humidity, wind, and firefighting progress. Further, re-entry was only permitted after the municipality completed inspections of all critical infrastructure, including roads.

As soon as re-entry was deemed safe for a portion of the evacuation zone, the municipality took immediate steps to inform the public.

The term “out of control,” which is commonly used in firefighting, was used by the Province of Nova Scotia’s Department of Natural Resources and Renewables and Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency to describe the state of the fire, with additional qualifications regarding the percentage contained until they were able to shift the status to “under control.”

Given the significant number of properties in the evacuation area, as part of the fire investigation process by Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency, focus was placed on capturing photos of properties that were damaged and destroyed. The majority of structures in the evacuation area were assessed and at least one photo was taken.

At the Canada Games Centre, when municipal staff met with residents whose properties had been destroyed by fire, these residents were given the opportunity to view images that were captured of their property.

Residents who needed to dispose of their refrigerators and freezers were advised of the following:

• Remove all contents. Refrigerators and freezers will not be collected if there are still items in them.
• Contact 311 or fill out the CFC Removal Form to submit a request and schedule an appointment to remove the refrigerant gases (CFCs).
• Once CFCs have been removed, place the item(s) curbside on the next regular garbage collection day. For safety reasons, do not place fridges or freezers curbside until CFCs are removed. The gases must be captured by a qualified technician.

CFC removal service timelines have been relaxed to accommodate the increase in demand. The CFC removal team, facilitated by the municipality, is prioritizing removal requests to work as quickly as possible.

The municipality worked with Halifax Water to ensure access to safe drinking water was made available. Halifax Water set up water stations, where residents can fill their own containers with drinking water. These stations are self-serve, and continue to be available at the following locations. 

• 134 Micmac Drive – Micmac Drive Park
• 290 White Hills Run – Madeline Symonds Middle School

Note: The water stations located on Pockwock Road have been removed.

The municipality also provided residents with access to water containers while they were returning to their properties.

The FireSmart Program is a National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) program and the Canadian version of the American FireWise program.

FireSmart helps protect residents, their homes, neighbourhoods, critical infrastructure and vital natural resources from wildfire. This is achieved through seven disciplines that help neighbourhoods address the threat of wildfire: vegetation management, emergency planning, education, legislation, development, interagency cooperation and cross-training. Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency (HRFE) started preparing for the program in 2021 and launched the FireSmart Program in 2022.

Through the voluntary FireSmart Property Assessment, residents can register to receive a wildfire risk assessment for their property using the FireSmart standard. Residents will be given a report of their homes and recommendations for reducing the risk of interface fire on their property structures. 

As part of the training for HRFE staff members as FireSmart Assessors, 20 homes have been assessed. HRFE has received 15 home assessment requests to date, all of which have also been completed. Training for additional FireSmart Assessors is tentatively being scheduled by HRFE for mid-July 2023.

RCMP officers patrolled neighbourhoods while they were evacuated and staffed checkpoints with partners. On June 9, RCMP handed local traffic control at the remaining checkpoints over to the Halifax Regional Municipality.

As communities began the healing process, RCMP officers maintained a presence in the most affected areas; a command post was set up on Bonsai Drive, and the RCMP, with assistance from Halifax Regional Police and private security companies, continued proactive patrols.