A fire ban may have been lifted but the Ministry of Natural Resources is still urging people to use extreme caution when lighting campfires throughout the district.
Garry Harland, fire operations supervisor at MNR’s fire headquarters in Fort Frances, said forests throughout the district are listed in moderate to high depending on where you are.
“There are some areas in the district that were finding good precipitation in the last few days,” Harland said Monday. “But some haven’t had any rain.”
For instance while Fort Frances received showers over the weekend Atikokan might not have, leaving gaps in the district still extremely dry.
A restricted fire zone that had blanketed much of the region for a week was lifted Saturday but that doesn’t mean fire crews are out of the woods yet. On Monday fire crews were battling two blazes in the district, fires number 35 and 36.
“I don’t expect any problems. I expect both fires to be ‘out’ entirely by the end of the day,” he said.
“People should always be extremely cautious this time of year with camping fires,” Harland urged.
He asked that people be aware of where they were lighting fires and try to have them built on solid rock and away from dry material.
“If it’s windy, please don’t burn,” Harland added.
Harland said it could only take two to three days of hot, dry, windy weather for forest fire conditions to return to extreme. As a result MNR will continue to make tourists aware of the situation as they pass through customs with their bridge program until at least Wednesday.
“It’s fairly effective tool. We do miss some people but most people coming into the area we’re able to connect with,” he remarked.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
