The forest fire burning a kilometre north of Churchill Falls is now moving east, away from the town and facilities including the hydro plant. Electricity generation at the plant has not been affected.

Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro switched to another feeder late last night because of a damaged pole line. Power to customers in Labrador City has been restored and the TLH at Churchill Falls has reopened.

NL Health Services says the clinic in Churchill Falls and the Labrador West Health Centre remains open with no impact to operations at this time.

Two water bombers have been deployed to help battle the fire. This time, the saving grace was that the winds were favourable from the west, blowing the fire eastward. At one point, it came within feet of the Churchill Falls hydro plant says local resident Robert Dawe.

He says as long as the winds don’t change, they’re safe in terms of air quality.

“Everybody was rushing last night, getting their vehicles filled up with fuel and packing their bags just like we did almost a year ago when we had to evacuate,” says Dawe. “Everyone was pretty tense and my phone was blowing up with people asking about the fire, the road…”

Last year, the town had to be evacuated on short notice with most people going to Happy Valley-Goose Bay on a rainy night and remaining there for many days.

Government has instituted a ban on outdoor burning in all of Labrador. Premier John Hogan says due to the high fire risk in the big land, government already had two water bombers on standby.

Hogan says two water bombers were on the ground ready to go in case a fire broke out. One of the aircraft came from Wabush while the other was flown in from Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

Meanwhile, meteorologist Tiffany Cheeks says the smoke from the fire may drift over the island, but she’s uncertain how prevalent it will be.

The smoke could suppress temperatures on the island by a couple of degrees.