“Widespread” rain over the weekend across many parts of Northwestern Ontario helped dampen down the overall risk for new forest fires, but an intense blaze burning west of Thunder Bay remained out of control on Monday.
Thunder Bay Fire No. 21, located in a remote area about 60 kilometres west of the city, more than doubled in size over the weekend to 50 hectares, according to the province’s Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services (AFFES) department.
Five, four-person ranger crews are assigned to fight the fire. They are being aided by two helicopters dumping buckets of water, said regional department spokeswoman Alison Bezubiak.
A cause of the fire, which was confirmed on Thursday, has yet to be determined, the department said.
Fire No. 21 is among about a dozen wildfires being fought or monitored across the Northwest.
On Saturday, two fire-ranger crews and two helicopters were assigned to another fire located south of Frazer Lake about 18 km northwest of Nipigon. Bezubiak said that blaze was “being held” as of Monday.
“C-415 waterbombers (dumped water on) both fires on Saturday, and fire-ranger crews made good progress over the weekend with help from the rainfall received overnight on Saturday,” Bezubiak said.
Both fires received five to seven millimetres of rain following what had been an unusually dry fall season so far.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, a blaze about five hectares in size was confirmed about 100 km east of Longlac at Eureka Lake. That fire was not under control as of Monday, Bezubiak said.
Fire season officially ends on Oct. 31.
As of late last week across the province, there had been 435 fires with nearly 892 square kilometres burned over. The long-term average for the same period is 687 fires and about 2,000 square kilometres burned, according to Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services figures.
