Northeast under restricted fire zone order

Due to high to extreme fire hazard and increased forest fire activity, a restricted fire zone order will be in effect for the Northeast Fire Region, including Sudbury, until such time as the order is revoked, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources.

The order restricts the use of open fires in a specific area of the province. Cloud cover and possible rain may help ease conditions slightly in parts of the northeast; however, fire activity is beginning to climb in the northwest, the MNR stated.

Forest fire activity continued to be steady on May 15 with 15 new fires confirmed. Ontario FireRangers made good progress on many burns and a number of fires were declared out or have now been contained, according to the MNR.

Among notable fires on May 15, Timmins 5 located near the west end of Timmins had its status upgraded to “being held.” Other fires now changed to being held include: Wawa 5, located three kilometres west of White River; and North Bay 8, a fire that caused the temporary closure of Highway 11 near Latchford on May 14.

Fire Timmins 7 has not yet been held and is currently 300 hectares in size. Approximately 125 persons were evacuated from Westree, Morin Village, Ruel and the Ostrum Mill site.

There were 26 active fires and 3,657 hectares burning in the province as of May 15. The largest fire remains Wawa 4 at approximately 3,000 hectares. A Type-1 Incident Management Team has been assigned to this fire.

Ontario averages more than 1,300 wildfires each year from Georgian Bay to Hudson’s Bay and about half of these are started by people. Every year, people and property are threatened by wildland fires and many of these fires occur in areas called the urban interface zone where homes, cottages and subdivisions are built into the forest landscape.

That's why the MNR devised its FireSmart program, which provides information to help communities and homeowners to take action and protect their properties and adjacent natural resources from the risk of wildfires.

To find out if your property is at risk, look through the “Home Owners FireSmart Manual.” Then complete the homeowner’s survey on your own property and assess the potential risk of loss due to a wildfire. You can use the risk assessment to show you where you may need to do some work to protect your home and property.

Posted by Arron Pickard