Mother Nature will be the biggest factor today as crews battle a forest fire in Chance Harbour on the Bonavista Peninsula.

The blaze started yesterday afternoon and quickly doubled in size to 1,200 hectares.

People in the Resource Road area have been evacuated, and some cabins have been affected by the blaze—the extent of any damage however is not known at this time.

Fire duty officer Mark Lawlor says the fire is burning away from the nearest community of Jamestown.

Lawlor states the weather will be the challenge today for crews that have been deployed to the area.

He says winds will be gusting between 20 and 40 km/h in the area which will make suppression difficult. However, he says the humidity is also expected to be up today, which will work in their favor by dampening the area.

Ryan Pitts, a resident of nearby Canning’s Cove, has been posting regular updates with pictures and videos on social media,

He describes watching the smoke rolling over the hills this morning, and says it is an “eerie” scene.

Watching the situation unfold yesterday, Pitts says all he could think of was the “devastation” for people in the area.

He says he spoke to one cabin owner who was out in their boat watching the situation, and they said they had 25 years of memories, and now they had to watch the fire come and take it.