There were two new wildland fires confirmed in Northwestern Ontario by this morning, according to Ontario Forest Fires (OFF), as the overall number of active fires dropped to 119 from around 140 last week with wetter weather moving through the region.
Eight fires had been called out since the previous update a day earlier, while 24 remained not under control, six were being held, seven were under control and 82 were being observed.
The massive Thunder Bay 36 fire, which was sitting around a record 313,930 hectares last week, was still considered not under control. However, it had dropped to 307,271 hectares by Monday evening.
“Helicopter bucketing operations are supporting ground crews by delivering water to priority areas, helping to cool hot spots and reduce the potential for fire activity” OFF said in its latest fire update.
The Atikokan Cluster, Fort Frances 13 (FOR013), Fort Frances 14 (FOR014), Fort Frances 15 (FOR015) and Fort Frances 38 (FOR038), in and around the southeastern side of Quetico Provincial Park, were still not under control, but had seen some reductions.
FOR013 measured 25,279 hectares, and “operations staff are assessing priorities and opportunities to place crews in strategic locations on the fire’s perimeter,” OFF said.
“FOR014 and FOR015 have been exhibiting relatively low fire behaviour and have not grown or moved toward major travel corridors in recent weeks. Crews are continuing to patrol for hotspots and establish hoselines around the fire perimeter.”
Meanwhile, FOR038, north of Crystal Lake, was called out after reaching a total of 44.2 hectares in size.
Last week, Ontario welcomed 100 firefighters and four agency representatives from Mexico to support wildland firefighting efforts. Two 20-person Mexican have been deployed to assist with the Rinker Lake Complex fires—Thunder Bay 36 (THU036), Dryden 34 (DRY034) and Dryden 35 (DRY035)—along with 16 crews from Ontario and Alberta, heavy equipment operators, pilots, overhead staff from Ontario and Québec and an incident management team.
“Across these fires, firefighting crews are focused on establishing hoselines, patrolling for and extinguishing hot spots and installing and maintaining values protection equipment,” OFF said.
“From all of us at Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services, thank you to Mexico and all our mutual aid partners for your continued support!”
Northern Ontario remains within a restricted fire zone until further notice “to reduce the number of human-caused wildland fires,” OFF said.
“We are expecting the current fire hazard to remain, along with the potential for problematic fires to continue and expect a continuation of the increased forest fire activity into the foreseeable future.”
No open-air burning, including campfires, is permitted within the boundaries of a RFZ. Portable gas or propane stoves may be used for cooking and warmth but must be handled with extreme caution and all burning permits are suspended.
