Fire by the dollars

The province has so far spent about $107 million fighting forest fires this year.

With the fire season not over until October, provincial fire information officer Art Osborne said costs will continue coming in over the next several weeks.

“Because of the nature of this year’s fire situation, Ontario has borrowed a significant amount of resources, such as firefighters, equipment and aircraft from other provinces and states,” he said. “Ontario will eventually pay for those borrowed resources and those costs have been factored into our cost estimates to date.”

More than 2,000 individuals, 21 water bombers, 96 helicopters and thousands of pieces of equipment have been used to fight wildfires in Ontario, Osborne said.

And with 17 new fires on Thursday, and a total of 105 active fires across the North, the fight isn’t nearly finished.

About 200 firefighters will be sent back to eastern and western Canada Saturday, but another 160 new ones will be arriving from British Columbia, Quebec and Nova Scotia to replace those individuals.

“This is tough, hot work they’re doing and they’re doing an extraordinary job keeping Ontario safe,” said Osborne.