BREAKING Iran fires air defence batteries in provinces as sound of explosions heard near Isfahan
Iran fired air defence batteries early Friday morning after reports of explosions near the city of Isfahan, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
Katherine Tarateski was only about 20 minutes away from her home, but police had already blocked off the neighbourhood.
The Nova Scotia resident had just been at a community potluck at a local park when she received the first emergency alert about the wildfires on Sunday.
Currently staying at a hotel in Halifax with family, Tarateski says she doesn't know when she will be able to return home.
Her home in the Tantallon area, a community in the western end of the Halifax Regional Municipality, is gone. Her pets, a dog and a cat, remain missing.
"I just couldn't deal with the thought that they were inside, so I just chose to believe that they are out somehow," Tarateski told CTV's Your Morning on Wednesday.
The ongoing wildfires in Nova Scotia have burned thousands of hectares across the province, destroying an estimated 200 structures in the Halifax area, including approximately 150 homes.
As of Tuesday morning, the Nova Scotia SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) said it had more than 100 animals in its care.
The organization says it is in the evacuation zone working with the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources to provide care for animals and reunite them with their families.
A province-wide ban on open fires, including in provincial parks, private campgrounds and backyard campfires, brush burning and fireworks is in effect in Nova Scotia
On Tuesday, the province also announced a series of restrictions on activities in wooded areas.
Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston has urged residents to adhere to the burn ban, saying six illegal burns came in Monday night. The cause for the fires is under investigation but are likely human-caused, a Department of Natural Resources official said.
"For God's sake, stop burning. Stop flicking cigarette butts out of the car window. Just stop it. Our resources are stretched incredibly thin right now fighting existing fires," Houston said.
Halifax Mayor Mike Savage told CTV News Channel on Wednesday that the situation is "dynamic," with a change in wind potentially putting more homes, firefighters and lives at risk.
Savage also called on Nova Scotians to stay away from the evacuation area and to not burn.
"If you're burning on your property that is stupid, that is selfish and that is putting people at risk and if nothing else, it's taking attention away from the areas where we really need it," he said.
Kelly Laurin was driving back to her home in Tantallon with her fiance when they noticed smoke coming from behind a local community centre.
After getting an evacuation notice, they packed their belongings and cats in their car.
At one point, Laurin says they could see the trees in their backyard burning.
"Honestly, I was in shock, I was terrified," she told CTV's Your Morning on Wednesday.
"I thought our house was going to go down, I thought the whole street was going to go down. I didn't really know what to think other than I had to get out of there as soon as possible."
Laurin says a neighbour managed to take a picture of her home, which showed it still standing, but with some fire damage.
She considers herself "extremely lucky," especially since there were a number of sentimental items that she wasn't able to bring or forgot to take, including pictures and her father's urn.
"It was just get out or be in the fire," she said.
Mary Wolfe, who is at a hotel with her family and dog, says while she couldn't see any fire at the time, a neighbour did advise her to leave due to the developing situation.
It wasn't until she was stuck in traffic trying to get out of her subdivision that the evacuation order came in.
Soon, she says ash began to fall on the cars and that is when it became real for her.
"It looks like a really hot, hazy summer day," she told CTV's Your Morning on Tuesday.
"The sky has smoke all through it and it smells, but we're about 10 kilometres from our house, so we're about 20 kilometres from the origination of the fire. So it's not as intense as it was at home but certainly you know something's going on."
Wolfe says, with the help of group chats and her neighbours' home security cameras, she learned that her street is safe.
"We were closer than we would have liked to have been," she said. "We don't know when we're going to get back in. We're still very much in the evacuation zone."
With files from CTVNewsAtlantic.ca Digital Co-ordinator Lyndsay Armstrong
Iran fired air defence batteries early Friday morning after reports of explosions near the city of Isfahan, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Nearly half of China's major cities are suffering 'moderate to severe' levels of subsidence, putting millions at risk of flooding especially as sea levels rise.
Prince Harry, the son of King Charles III and fifth in line to the British throne, has formally confirmed he is now a U.S. resident.
The judge presiding over the trial of a man accused of fatally running over a Toronto police officer is telling jurors the possible verdicts they may reach based on the evidence in the case.
Health Canada will change its longstanding policy restricting gay and bisexual men from donating to sperm banks in Canada, CTV News has learned. The federal health agency has adopted a revised directive removing the ban on gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, effective May 8.
Colin Jost, who co-anchors Saturday Night Live's 'Weekend Update,' revealed who he thinks is one of the best hosts on the show.
A male columnist has apologized for a cringeworthy moment during former University of Iowa superstar and college basketball's highest scorer Caitlin Clark's first news conference as an Indiana Fever player.
Sophie Kinsella, the best-selling author behind the 'Shopaholic' book series, has revealed that she is receiving treatment for brain cancer.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
While many people choose to keep their medical appointments private, four longtime friends decided to undergo vasectomies as a group in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.