Rainfall in North Drops Forest Fire Danger
THUNDER BAY – With more rain falling across the Northwest Region the forest fire hazard has dropped to low in all sectors. The hazard may rise to moderate in the far north with temporary clearing of weather on the weekend, but more rain is in the long range forecast so things are expected to remain quiet.
Environment Canada has more precipitation in the forecast. Especially for the areas to the east of Thunder Bay.
Rainfall Moves East
A broad area of low pressure over the Great Lakes will remain fairly stationary for the next a couple of days. The system is forecast to give the above regions showers and thunderstorms today. Showers may be heavy at times due to embedded thunderstorms.
Rainfall amounts will be highly variable with additional 15 to 25 mm likely in a few areas by this evening. Higher amounts are quite possible locally in areas that receive multiple thunderstorms.
Weather Helped Fight Forest Fires
After a sustained attack on Red Lake District Fire Number 31, it has been declared being held at just over 18,550 hectares in size. Firefighters in divisions around the fire are patrolling for hot spots, but fewer and fewer spots are being mapped through infrared scanning.
Firefighters are also cleaning up empty fire line camps and a number of crews are going home after long days of challenging work on this fire.
Other crews remain to retrieve fire hose from the fire line as well as other forest fire suppression equipment. Values protection sprinklers have been removed from values no longer at risk. The Incident Management Team is preparing to transition out in the next few days to hand management of the fire back to the Red Lake Fire Management Headquarters. This includes demobilizing of the support structure that was set up at the Bak Lake fire base for Red Lake Fire 31.
The challenge for crews remaining on the fire is to work safely in what has now become wet and slippery forest. This fire will require ongoing work with the best test of the lines being clear weather to see if there are any flare ups. There is more rain in the forecast at this point though.
An island fire in the Red Lake District that was reported two days ago was investigated July 25. Bad weather prevented fire crews from attending to this fire. They reached the fire July 25 and a few smokes were observed. It is now out.
Thirty-seven fires remain listed as active in the Northwest Region. Of those active, 32 are being observed, three are under control and two are classed as being held. This brings the total number of fires since April 1 to 272 with an area burned of 41,587.8 hectares.
Report forest fires! Call 310-FIRE (3473)
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