Ministry downplays threat to French River as Parry Sound 33 forest fire burns out of control

The forest fire known as Parry Sound 33 is still about 20 kilometres away from the Municipality of French River, but some residents are worried they could be in the path of the blaze.

The fire is listed as "out of control" by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forest (MNRF) as crews continue to battle the blaze.

As of early Wednesday afternoon, fire information officer Shayne McCool said there's been no growth in the 5,600-hectare blaze, andrain was helping temper the flames and smoke.

Residents anxious

However, some residents and business owners are saying it's better to act now than later.

Alex Strachan, who owns and operates the Lodge at Pine Cove, near Nolville, says he knows the fire would still take a few days to threaten the town in the worst of cases, butshifting winds from the southwest have him worried.

He believes the ministry and municipality should consider mobilizing volunteers, along with ministry workers, to cut down swaths of trees on either side of Highway 69.

Here's how crews are fighting a big Ontario blaze

6 years ago

Duration 0:48

This video, provided by the ministry of natural resources and forestry, shows crews trying to put out Parry Sound 33 on July 24.

"You look at the map, you look at the wind direction, you know the fire's out of control, and you say, 'OK, here's the fighting chance: let's do it,'" said Strachan. "But it's getting the body politic moved to do that.

"I bet you if the call went out here you'd have 500 people from this municipality there in a few hours, and you'd probably have hundreds of others coming up from Parry Sound, Sturgeon Falls, Sudbury, et cetera."

Strachan adds that numerous bulldozers and trucks are parked along the highway for construction purposes, and are potentially in the fire's path.

"If the fire goes somewhere else because the winds miraculously change or there's divine intervention, then great; nobody's lost anything, it doesn't matter," says Strachan.

"The question is you've got to act, you can't be cautious about fires. If you have a chance to prevent something, you prevent it, because if you don't, you don't get a second chance."

Representatives of the Municipality of French River said numerous meetings were planned Wednesday afternoon to decide next steps.

Earlier this week, the fire forced the evacuation of about 200 people from Henvey Inlet First Nation and Key Harbour.

No imminent threat

Representatives of the municipality of French River have been meeting to get updates multiple times a day from the ministry's incident command post.

MayorClaude Bouffard, says there's no reason to be overly worried.

He says residents inNolvillereported increasing amounts of smoke on Wednesday due to the changing wind.

"There's no imminent threat to the municipality at all, at this time," he says. "We were assured that if something would happen and the fire would come back [toward the communities], we'll be the first to be notified and there will be lots of time to take action.

"We've been proactive in getting a lot of things ready in case that would happen," Bouffard says.

He addsthe municipality will continue posting updates on its website and Facebook page multiple times per day.

'A good sign'

McCool says Parry Sound 33 is currently burning in French River Provincial Park, "closer to the Georgian Bay coastline than it is to the highway, so that's a good sign."

"Fires tend to burn quite patchy, so just clearing a section of timber might not be as effective as folks might think. With the embers coming from the fires, they tend to jump ahead of it."

McCool says crews have prioritized work on the section of the fire closest to Highway69 to prevent it from spreading in that direction.

"The weather has cooperated in the past few days and it does offer more of an opportunity for our crews to aggressively establish hose lines in that area," he adds.

McCool says that owners of properties that may have been impacted by the fire will be contacted by the MNRF "in the coming weeks."