Two Manitoba men are $7,000 out-of-pocket after being convicted of lighting a campfire that went out of control in a restricted fire zone.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry says a pair of back-country canoeists from Winnipeg camped on an island on Bain Lake in the District of Kenora on the Victoria Day weekend last year.
Although a Restricted Fire Zone was in place due to a high fire hazard, the men built a campfire that subsequently escaped, resulting in most of the island being burned.
The fire was extinguished by MNRF fire rangers, partly by air attack.
After pleading guilty recently in a Kenora court, the men were fined $500 each for starting a fire without a permit, and were ordered to pay $3,000 each toward the cost of putting out the fire.