BY JASON THOMPSON
Although there was a slight reprieve Thursday, this is the driest summer in 20 years.
?Sudbury is in a serious drought,? Amanda Brosseau of the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) said. ?That?s one of the reasons a restricted fire zone came into place.
?And it?s not only Sudbury, most areas north of the French River are in a severe drought.?
From June 29 to Aug. 3, Brosseau said that 93 fires were ignited in Northern Ontario and seven in Greater Sudbury, six of which were caused by
lightning strikes. A seventh fire was man-made and broke out near Black Lake where it engulfed 2.5 hectares of land.
As of Aug. 4, there are 58 fires currently ablaze in the east fire region, 16 of which are not under control.
Brosseau said Sudbury has been lucky because most fires are spotted and reported before they can grow in size and gain strength.
According to an MNR update released Aug. 4, the east fire region has recorded more than 25,000 lightning strikes in the past 32 hours.
This extreme number of strikes is expected to ignite many new forest fires over the next several days. Forecasted hot, dry weather will significantly increase the potential of forest fires igniting in clusters and problematic fires will be very high through the weekend.
?When lightning strikes the ground it will start burning the roots,? said Brosseau. ?It will burn underground before it surfaces.? It is not uncommon for a forest fire to originate as much as a foot underground since the ground is porous and not completely void of oxygen to fuel the blaze, she said.
?Oxygen is also fed through the tree so if a fire is burning the root and smolders and four or five days later a fire can pop up. In these conditions, a
fire can emerge in two days or less because of the heat.?
Fighting forest fires requires the co-operation between the local fire department and the MNR.
?Even within the boundaries of Greater Sudbury, there are many areas that are unattainable by our municipal fire department because... there isn?t
road access everywhere,? said Greater Sudbury?s deputy fire chief Marc Leduc. ?We don?t have the staff or the equipment.?
In such cases, the MNR is ready to attack with water bombers and detection planes.
Of course, the biggest danger and concern of the fire department is the public, said Leduc.
?We are desperately hoping people respect the fire³ ban all over the place because woods are still dry and with the winds those fires spread rather quickly and potentially into residential neighborhoods.?
As it stands, it would take a tremendous amount of rain before suspending the fire ban would be considered.
?We haven?t had any rain this summer, we get the odd day, but we need at least three solid days of downpour to even come close to easing the fire
hazard,? said Brosseau.
