Figures from the provincial natural resources and forestry ministry confirm any suspicion that it’s been a quiet summer for forest fires so far in these parts.
Northeast region fire information officer Isabelle Chenard looks at the Timmins district.
“This year, we’ve seen 12 forest fires so far as of mid August,” she notes. “And if you look at last year, we had seen 18.”
The area affected is remarkably low, too. Those 12 blazes have only eaten through an area of 14 football fields.
And the area consumed by flames is also low.
“(In) the Timmins district there’s been a total of 14 hectares, which is the equivalent of 14 football fields in total for the whole district, which is very few,” Chenard reports, “and under two hectares in the Hearst district this year have been affected by fire.”
Three fires have burned in the Hearst district, down from four by mid August of last year.
All 15 currently active fires are in what the ministry considers the Cochrane district. So far, they have affected 14-hundred hectares. But they’re all in the far north, and have been observed while they – as the MNRF calls it – “exercise their natural benefits to the landscape”.