Some residents in rural Halifax County are being told they should be prepared to evacuate as crews battle an out-of-control wildfire about 100 kilometres east of the city.

As of 6 p.m. AT, the Mooseland Road wildfire in the Jacket Lake area was estimated to be more than 300 hectares.

“We’ve had some pretty hard conditions out there today with the weather and the dryness of the forests and we worked very hard to control it, but it’s defeating us a little bit right now,” Jim Rudderham, director of fleet and wildfire management for the Department of Natural Resources, told CBC News on Thursday evening.

Ruddeham said the fire began late Wednesday evening, but that dry and hot conditions helped it spread on Thursday.

“The first call came for this late [Wednesday] evening. Of course it came in well after our planes were down for the day and everything was down for the day. We were out there last evening with crews and again this morning and the planes were back this morning,” he said.

Evacuation could happen on short notice: alert

An alert from the Halifax municipality advised residents north of civic numbers 2890 and south of civic 2124 to be prepared to evacuate on short notice “if conditions change in the coming hours and an evacuation order is needed.”

The alert said DNR along with Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency are fighting the fire.

Mooseland Road is closed in both directions between civic numbers 2124 and 2887 due to firefighting operations, the alert said. People are being advised to stay away from the area.

DNR said two of its helicopters and four fixed-wing water bombers are on site.

It said that an additional two fixed-wing water bombers are also en route to help from Newfoundland.

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