Fire season not as busy

The official end of the fire season is tomorrow (Oct. 31) and while it was a dry year, with a record-breaking hot summer, overall there were fewer fires reported in Northwestern Ontario than in 2011.
Since April 1, a total of 664 fires were confirmed in the Northwest Region, charring 97,284.9 hectares in all.

In 2011, a total of 908 blazes consumed 629,391.4 ha in all. But the 2010 fire season saw just 371 blazes, burning 9,616.2 ha.
There were 194 fires by the end of the fire season in 2009, with 13,934 ha burned.
However, fire activity in Fort Frances District was higher than in the past couple of years.
The district saw a total of 71 fires this year, which burned 383.2 ha. Many of these blazes were in Quetico Provincial Park.
This is more than in 2011, when 58 fires consumed 288.2 ha, and in 2010, when 46 fires in Fort Frances District charred 462.1 ha.
No new fires have been reported recently.
Four fires remain “active” in the Northwest Region as of today (one each in Kenora, Nipigon, Sioux Lookout, and Thunder Bay districts), as well as two prescribed burn sites that are being monitored in the Kenora and Sioux Lookout districts.
With the fires season officially ending tomorrow, a fire permit no longer is required for daytime burning of woody debris or grass if you live in an area governed by the Forest Fires Prevention Act of Ontario.
But while day burning is allowed after the fire season ends, residents are reminded that they must be responsible for the safe management of outdoor fires, including campfires and any clean-up of woody debris.
Those living within an organized municipality or First Nations’ community may have to follow more stringent open burning bylaws.
Before burning, residents should check with their local fire officials.