Forest fire season starts

With Thursday marking the beginning of forest fire season, the Ministry of Natural Resources is urging area residents not to burn anything at this time.

The Forest Fire Prevention Act took effect April 1 and fire operations supervisor Kip Miller said they discourage any kind of burning because of the current conditions.

"The grass fuels are very volatile," he said. "The slightest wind will push the fire away from you before you realize what has happened and you may lose control of that."

If a person does start a fire and it gets out of control, not only could they be charged under the Forest Fire Prevention Act, they could be responsible for the cost of the fire.

The MNR’s water bomber costs $9,000 per hour to operate and one of their helicopters costs $1,600.

The MNR also issued a new toll-free emergency forest fire phone number for Northern Ontario. If anyone spots a forest fire, call 310-FIRE.

The city of Thunder Bay and the municipality of Neebing have both issued fire bans.

All burning permits for Thunder Bay have been suspended until further notice. Visit http://www.thunderbay.ca/fire for updates.