What a difference a year makes regarding the number of wildland fires in the northeast region.
MNRF fire information officer Isabelle Chenard says 715 fires have been reported that’s consumed over 420,000 hectares which is up from 255 from this time last year.
“If you look at the fire season so far we started out pretty quiet in April and roughly the first half of May and then started to accelerate the latter half of May and well into June,” she said. “We saw some wide spread rain slowing down the number of new fires being confirmed in late July.”
Chenard says there are 33 active fires including one Wednesday near Fergus and Crow Creek Roads west of Opasatika. That fire was reported out yesterday morning.
Warmer fall weather could be hanging around into next week, Chenard says if you are going camping to be careful of where you are setting up that fire.