MNR sending fire help east

The Ministry of Natural Resources’ regional forest fire management program is in a favourable position now to release out-of-province firefighting resources in the coming days, and also to provide support to Ontario’s East Fire Region, which currently is experiencing an escalated fire situation.
An ignition team, one radio operator, and a warehouse person will be supporting the East Fire Region along with 15 FireRanger crews.
For aerial attack resources, the Northwest Region is providing two air attack officers, three Birddog aircraft, and six CL-415 heavy waterbombers.
With rainfall already received, and more in the forecast, the fire hazard is now “low” and demobilization of staff is occurring on all of the fires in the region.
With this improvement in the fire scene in Northwestern Ontario, the release of out-of-province resources is scheduled to begin today with crews and support staff from British Columbia scheduled to leave from Thunder Bay fires #37 and #39, as well as Alberta crews who have been supporting the initial attack system in Sioux Lookout, Red Lake, and Kenora districts.
On Sunday, additional B.C. crews will be released from Thunder Bay Fire #37 and Northwest Territories crews will be released from Sioux Lookout Fire #11.
By next Tuesday, the B.C. Incident Management Team is scheduled to return home, as well as Alberta crews from Thunder Bay Fire #37.
In total, there were 255 out-of-province personnel supporting the Northwest Region effort during its recent escalated fire situation, including 137 personnel from B.C., 86 from Alberta, and 32 from the Northwest Territories.
One new lightning fire was reported in the region in the past 24 hours. Thunder Bay Fire #49 was a 0.1 hectare blaze caused when lightning struck a giant white pine tree.
The tree—burning part-way up its trunk—was discovered by a FireRanger crew on a training assignment. No problems were anticipated with this fire, located about 25 km southwest of Thunder Bay.
There currently are five active fires in the region—two in Thunder Bay, one in Kenora, one in Nipigon, and one in Sioux Lookout—covering a total of 30,557.8 ha.
There’s been 167 fires since April 1, consuming 30,954.7 ha.