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 Hearst district.
“Last year at this time, we had seen four fires,” she reports, “and this year we’ve only seen three.”
The area affected is remarkably low, too.
“The Timmins district there’s been a total of 14 hectares,” Chenard says, “which is the equivalent of 14 football fields in total for the whole district, which is very few and under two hectares in the Hearst district this year have been affected by fire.”
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”.
