Forest fire season over for another year

The forest fire season in northwestern Ontario is officially over.

It wrapped up on Friday.

Fire Information Officer Chris Marchand categorizes it as a pretty active fire season.

“11 communities in the northwest, not to mention various cottage enclaves and areas, were directly affected by wildland fires, to the degree of resulting in restrictions or some form of evacuations.”” points out Marchand.

Marchand adds this past fire season was much more active than last year.

“Last year forest fires burned just under 90,000 hectares province wide. Whereas this year, they burned just under 600,000 hectares by the end of the season.”

In northwestern Ontario this year, there were 435 wildfires since April 1st.

Province wide, there were 643 fires between April and October with 597,654 hectares burned.

Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources also says Ontario extended support of over 400 fire personnel and six aircraft, which supported firefighting in British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, as well as south of the border in Minnesota.