As RCI’s Carmel Kilkenny reported Monday, forest fires are becoming a growing concern in Quebec and Ontario as firefighters battle with the ill-effects of too much dry weather, high temperatures and thunder and lightening storms.
After a slow, wet start to spring, forest fires are sparking up around northeastern Ontario. (Chris Ensing/CBC)
About 85 firefighters from Alberta and British Columbia arrived in Ontario on Tuesday to join about 400 firefighters from that province to try to contain fires raging in large segments of the province–both in the northwest and the northeast region north of North Bay to Temagami, where a state of emergency was declared on Monday as residents from about 20 homes were forced to evacuate.
Sixty-six fires are currently burning in the northeast region. Twenty-seven of those are currently not under control.
For an update on the current situation and some perspective on what firefighters are likely to face this summer, I spoke by phone Wednesday with Shayne McCool in Sudbury, Ontario.
He is the fire information officer for Ontario’s northeast region with for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.
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