Northeastern Ontario isn’t exactly out of the woods when it comes to forest fire activity.

But a Fire Information Officer with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry says there’s no major concerns at this time.

Shayne McCool says there are nine active fires in the Far North, where the hazard level is set to extreme.

He says they’re observing eight of them at the moment, while the other is getting a “modified response,” which McCool adds is receiving “fire suppression activity” at this time.

The biggest fire is burning at 6,000 hectares closer to the James Bay coast.

Meantime, there was another fire found near Wawa on Sunday. McCool says that fire is at 0.8 hectares and crews are looking to make progress on that today.

Looking at the year thus far, McCool says there have been 147 fires across the province, burning around 14,570 hectares.

That’s down significantly when compared to previous years. In 2016, there were 400 fires totaled, which burned 82,426 hectares.

The 10-year average, according to McCool, is 454 fires and 96,335 hectares burned.

No matter the conditions or the stats, a stat that’s always a concern is the amount of fires created by humans.

McCool says approximately half of forest fires are man made, asking the public to exercise caution when creating a campfire, no matter the conditions.

According to their interactive map, the Timmins and surrounding area is under a moderate hazard level.

Filed under: Local News