Churchill Falls power plant being operated remotely after evacuation order

But first, the breaking news on the wildfire still threatening Churchill Falls in Labrador. A fire official says the flames are now on the town side of the Churchill River. It's jumped the river that had been a barrier between the wildfire and the community. It's airport and the big hydro plant that is nearby. So lots at stake and lots of attention to that site and those flames. Peter Cowan leading off for us this hour. He's just back. Of course, we were speaking to you, Peter, as you you travelled up to cover the fire in Churchill Falls. I know you've just been speaking with fire officials. So as we begin, what is the latest on the situation in Churchill Falls this morning? Yeah. So the flames did cross the river and made their way to the airport, which sits just West of the town. And that was news that nobody wanted to hear because that had been that main defensive line, that Churchill River had been protecting the community. And the problem was the conditions were just fueling that fire. There were high winds, there were warm temperatures and low humidity, all the things a fire needs in order to grow. And in fact, it got so intense that at one point they had to just pull back the water bombers. There was nothing they could do to fight that fire. Unfortunately, later in the afternoon when this fire developed into rank 5, Rank 6, we couldn't, the water bombers had to pull off. It was just too dangerous. They couldn't get at the head of this fire. So they tried some indirect attack on it and then after that we we pulled them out. It was being ineffective. There is better news today. There's finally some rain in the forecast. This is what fire officials have been hoping for for the last week. And so they're hoping that Mother Nature will really help them today, being able to tamp down this fire a bit and so they can get the six water bombers they have there to really attack this fire and keep it away from the community. And to lose those six because the two or to lose two of them because they had to go to Quebec to fight the fire there in that province. They had been at work on the Churchill Falls fire, Peter, as you were telling us, obviously the huge concern is the hydroelectric plant, Churchill Falls, all about that critical source of infrastructure and power. And now we know with the jump of the river, the evacuation has really expanded and everyone is out. So what is the latest as far as the power plant? And then I also am interested in the effect on power supply to so many. Yeah. So there's a couple of issues to talk about here. So first of all, the plant, this was built in the 1960s. Nobody ever planned for this to be operated remotely. But over the last week, they've been figuring out a way to try and have some limited operations. So they are producing some limited power to keep the lights on as much as they can in Labrador and send some power to Quebec, but it's very limited. They are doing this remotely from Happy Valley, Goose Bay. And of course, the worry is what happens if something goes wrong because there's no one left in town in in order to do any of those repairs. There were about 100 essential workers keeping that plant running. They've now all left the community. And it's been a struggle for those essential workers as they arrived in Happy Valley, Goose Bay last night. It wasn't easy because it is my home. I was born and raised there. But hopefully it it'll burn itself out and Mother Nature won't be angry with us and we'll be able to go back one day. Now, Heather, you were talking about power outages in Labrador West, and that's another impact from this fire. Because the fire was burning near power lines, They actually had to douse those power lines with a water bomber that caused the lines to trip. So the community of Wabash has no power this morning. And people are being warned that it could be an extended power outage because it's just not safe for the crews to get to those lines to reset them. So no one knows exactly when that power will return. And we would expect, Peter, updates from officials at some point today. They're really, really active in giving new information. So we'll wait for updates from an El Hydro and all of the other officials. But thank you very much, Peter, for that breaking news. Really appreciate it in our St. John's newsroom.