MNRF battle growing forest fires in northwestern Ontario

Asthe forest fire hazard ranges from high to extreme in northwestern Ontario, officials with the Ministry Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) said 12 new forest fires have been confirmed as ofWednesday night.

Thefires range from 0.1 to 40 hectares and occurred in the districts of Red Lake, Fort Frances, Dryden and Sioux Lookout, with majority of them in the Sioux Lookout District.

The MNRF saidthe fire near the community of Keewayin First Nation has grown to 54,643 hectares in size and is 12 km southwest of the community. An incident management team has been deployed to assess the sprinkler requirements in the area and fire crews and equipment were funnelled into the area all day Wednesday.

Red Lake fire 38 and 39 have now merged as one fire and is now over 11,000 hectares in size. The northern side of the fire continued to work its way northward burning up against the west shore of Pikangikum Lake, and is about 6 kilometres southwest of the community on the opposite side of the lake.

The fire near Nungesser Lake continues to be not under control as of Wednesday evening, with an approximate size of5000 hectares. It is about 40 kilometres north of Red Lake.

MNRF fire information officer, Jonathan Scott, stated that fire crews are continuing to reinforce control lines and bulldozer guards along Red Lake 40while attacking it from the air with water bombers. Sprinklers have also been set up on structures.

As of Wednesday night there are a total of 28 active forest fires with 12 not under control, four being held, four under control and eight being observed.