PICKLE LAKE – The major threat to the Township of Pickle Lake has subsided. The fire which raged last week has fought to a standstill it appears. Our image in this article shows just how powerful the fire was, and shows that there could have been serious problems had the fire crews, residents, and the weather not all worked together.
The Township office will be open for the remainder of the week but operating on limited staff due to training; there may be notice posted on the door for short out of the office times due to maintaining a meeting structure with MNRF/PEOC, please understand we are experiencing high volumes of calls with ministries still involved in this Fire, if your matter is not of urgency please follow up with us on Thursday or Friday for bill payments or general inquiries or leave a message and we will return your call when possible. ServiceOntario will be open tomorrow, we have only 1 operator so please understand wait times may be longer.
Phone lines are being restored, we expect full restoration by late this week/early next week.
Garbage collection will be on WEDNESDAY.
The council meeting has been post-poned until June 18th, all tenders on the playground project and bids on cottage lot properties have been extended until Monday June 17 at 14:30 CST.
MNRF has maintained that the fire has not been deemed as ‘under control’ at this time. In order for the fire to be de-escalated it must remain in a dormant state for a certain number of days; if weather patterns remain the same we anticipate this de-escalation mid week. MNRF is doing an excellent job keeping us informed. Crews are still on the fire lines and maintaining the perimeter.
By Tuesday or Wednesday we expect to see helicopters in the air with Infrared equipment looking for hot spots for crews to attend to. Two water bombers will remain in Pickle. 17 crews in total are working the fire and an incident command management team took over the fire at 18:00 June 9th.
The Municipality maintains a 12 hour mobilization if we start to see activity again on the fire.
We continue to request that residents do not drive down barricaded roads; these are fire crew access only at this time.
Please continue to obey direction given by FIRE/OPP/Municipal Staff.
If you require EMS Services please call 928-2255
If you need to report active fire activity please call 310-FIRE
