Duane Hicks
With record high temperatures in Rainy River District leaving grass and other fuels tinder dry, the local Ministry of Natural Resources Aviation, Forest Fire, and Emergency Services already is keeping its eyes open for fire starts.
MNR fire management supervisor Marney Brown said MNR staff have not had to respond to any blazes yet, but have been patrolling the district and scouting areas of potential concern.
“It’s starting earlier than normal,” she noted.
“Generally, the fire season doesn’t start until April 1. But with the milder conditions, we do have an early start to it.
“The way that we’re dealing with that, as I mentioned before, is we had folks that were working on the weekend and available for response,” added Brown.
“And we’re also looking at bringing in some additional staff.
“Because the snow has gone so quickly and because we did go into the winter with somewhat of a drought—not a serious drought but we were drier going into the winter than normal—we continue to encourage folks to be safe with fire,” she stressed.
Brown said district residents should not let their guard down even once we do get rain.
“In the springtime, we’re dealing with a lot of dead, cured grass,” she explained. “Those fuels dry out incredibly quickly, even with a little bit of rain it provides short-term relief.
“But unless we have significant, prolonged periods of rain, we could see ourselves getting in and out of the hazard quite regularly.
“So before we get into that ‘green-up’ phase, where we’re in summer fuel conditions, there is definitely a good chance of fire spreading quickly in those areas that do contain lots of dead, cured grass or even in forested areas,” warned Brown.
“I can’t stress enough that with a little bit of precip, it’s still critical that people don’t let their guards down because the fuels this time of year are so susceptible to change.”
Several district municipalities already have implemented fire bans. Here in Fort Frances, the local fire department is not issuing burning permits until further notice, while the Townships of Alberton, Chapple, Dawson, Emo, and La Vallee are prohibiting burning of grass or brush until at least April 1.
All residents of Rainy River District are reminded to contact your local municipal office to determine if burning activities are allowed or if restrictions have been put in place.
Brown said Rainy River District is a unique part of the West Fire Region in that there’s a substantial agricultural area west of Fort Frances, and the open areas tend to lose their snow much faster than forested ones.
That said, other parts of the region have pockets of an equally high fire hazard, just not as large.
Brown said it’s difficult to know what the weather will be like this spring, but the MNR held a provincial weather briefing about a week-and-a-half ago that indicated it won’t necessarily stay dry.
“The general feeling is we should have a warmer-than-average spring but we’re also anticipating higher-than-normal precip levels, which obviously we haven’t seen yet,” she remarked.
“And it seems any rain we’ve had in the forecast seems to be getting pushed off.”
With the fire season officially starting April 1, Brown said the MNR has, for the past couple of months, been looking at staff coming back, determining what they have, and just ensuring they have staff in place for the start of the contracts.
They’re also looking at training packages because when staff do come on, they have a pretty rigorous training program they undertake,” she noted.
“There’s been a lot of efforts going into that.
“We’ve also been working with the municipalities on renewal of fire response agreements which we have with several municipalities in the district≤” Brown added.
“Those have been the key areas we’ve been working on over the last several weeks, and will continue to until the start of the season.”
Brown said fire management staff will be coming back throughout the next month. Crew leaders will be back as of April 2 while senior crew members and a few others will come in a week later, with more to follow, specifically students, by month’s end.
During the MNR fire season (April 1-Oct. 31), burning during the day is prohibited. A person cannot light a fire more than two hours before sunset and it must be extinguished within two hours after sunrise.
The public is reminded they are responsible for the safe management of their fires year-round. Should any of their actions cause a wildfire, enforcement will be called in and the negligent party will be prosecuted.
The public is encouraged to visit www.ontario.ca/fireprevention for more information.
