Duane Hicks
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry is sending staff to help fight the raging wildfire that forced the evacuation of Fort McMurray, Alta.
More than 100 personnel from across the province will be deployed, including five from the local MNRF fire headquarters.
“Currently we have one of our [four-person] FireRanger crews scheduled to depart for Alberta on Friday,” said fire management supervisor Marney Brown.
“In addition to that, one of our fire management technicians is going to be deployed with them as a strike team leader,” she added.
Brown noted the standard deployment is for two weeks, not counting travel time there and back.
Meanwhile, Brown said the Fort Frances fire headquarters was at a full complement for the season as of Monday.
“We brought people in progressively since April, but this past Monday [May 2] we hired on the last of the staff that are coming on for the season,” she explained.
The local fire headquarters employs 59 personnel, including warehouse staff, administration, and 11 four-person FireRanger crews—and they are ready for whatever may come.
Brown noted that conditions are “very dry out there.”
“We’re in a ‘high’ to ‘extreme’ hazard across the entire district, so we are definitely cautioning people that if they’re doing any open-air burning and in a municipality, to check with the municipality to see if there’s any restrictions in place,” she said.
“And for areas that fall outside the municipality, we’re asking the people to make sure they follow the burn regulations and be very aware of the dry conditions and the need to be safe with fire,” Brown added.
“If you don’t need to be burning, don’t,” she stressed. “But we haven’t actually implemented a Restricted Fire Zone yet.”
The MNRF is suggesting residents seek alternatives to spring burning by considering composting or using a local landfill.
In related news, three new fires were confirmed by early yesterday afternoon in the West Fire Region.
These blazes all were located in Kenora District and were 0.1 hectares in size.
Meanwhile, two additional fires were confirmed later in the day Tuesday.
Both were located in Kenora District and have since been declared “out.”
