THUNDER BAY – More fires continue to crop up despite scattered rainfall in the northwest region. The community of Deer Lake which was evacuated due to the Red Lake 51 fire, saw 10.7 millimetres, and Poplar Hill, which was also forced to evacuate, saw 5.6 millimetres.
“This on the heels of some previous rainfall over Monday, which is helping to keep fire behaviour down on both of those fires, which haven’t advanced toward the communities in a significant way in several days,” Says Chris Marshand, Ministry of Natural Resources fire information officer, “One weather station in Clearwater Bay measured as much as 96 millimetres, although those numbers are very localized to that specific area.”
Though the recent scattered rainfall is helping to keep fire behaviour down in communities that received precipitation, there is not enough rain to sufficiently saturate the region to reduce the amount of new fire starts. There were 31 new fires Wednesday, and 161 active fires as of Thursday morning.
Roughly 100 crews from northwest Ontario and 20 contract crews are continuing to fight fires in the region and are being assisted by crews from out of province, such as the 101 firefighters from Mexico, a contingent from the Atlantic Provinces, a contingent from Wisconsin, and some personnel from Quebec.
Marshand would like to remind the public that even though we’ve seen some rainfall, there is still a restricted fire zone in effect.
