the MNRF
It was a busy weekend for Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry FireRangers.
Aerial detection discovered a new fire yesterday in Thunder Bay District about 50 km west of Lake Nipigon.
The lightning-caused fire is burning on a small island on Myles Lake.
It currently is listed as “not under control” at 0.3 hectares.
A grass fire in the Dryden District also was reported yesterday adjacent to the Dryden Airport Road.
Five fires were confirmed by day’s end on Saturday—one each in the districts of Fort Frances, Dryden, Kenora, Sioux Lookout, and Thunder Bay.
Fort Frances District is monitoring fire #12 on the north end of Quetico Park.
This human-caused blaze is reported as “being observed” at 0.5 ha.
Dryden District had a multi-agency response to a fire along Highway 502, including the fire departments of Oxdrift, the Town of Dryden, Machin, and Wabigoon, as well as AFFES FireRangers.
Traffic control assistance was provided by the OPP.
Mop-up continues on this fire, which is “under control” at four ha in size.
Meanwhile, Kenora Fire #28 is now a 350-ha blaze and an Incident Management Team is on stand-by to manage it.
There are 10 FireRanger crews committed to the fire, who are making great progress establishing hose lines.
The fire burned three power line poles on Saturday, but hydro crews replaced the poles and repaired the line to restore power.
The Shoal Lake Road, which had been temporarily closed, now is passable for residents within the community of Shoal Lake.
The fire behaviour is classed as “smouldering.”
In related news, Ontario is supporting Alberta and the Yukon with firefighting resources.
On Saturday, a total of 74 personnel, including agency representatives and four-person Initial Attack FireRanger crews, travelled to the Yukon.
There is a total of 126 personnel in , including a number of 21-person crews for sustained action on fires and four-person initial attack crews, plus strike team leaders and agency reps.
Ontario firefighters and overhead staff in Alberta are being positioned in the wildfire management areas across the northern sectors of the province, including Slave Lake, White Court, Peace River, and High Level.
Some are being assigned to active fires while some are deployed to respond to new fire starts.
The McClain Incident Management Team has been assigned to a fire.
For more information about the current fire situation and the active fires map, visit ontario.ca/forestfire
Report forest fires by calling 310-FIRE (3473).
