While the winter weather may be early this year, it’s had at least one benefit—helping out the Ministry of Natural Resources with some forest fires.

MNR fire information officer Deb McLean said this morning that 22 fires were declared “out” yesterday, the bulk of which were in the Thunder Bay and Nipigon districts.

“The weather has absolutely been a factor. Forest fires are so intimately tied to the weather, you can’t really separate the two,” McLean noted.

“Just as nature certainly challenged us with drought-like conditions earlier this season, so, too, now will the rain and snow help us.

“But it will also make for pretty miserable conditions when it comes to patrolling the areas and making sure the fires are ‘out,’” she added.

“In the case of many of the fires burning in the forest woodland, the rain and snow is effectively going to put them ‘out.’

“In situations like Fort Frances, where you have a fire burning organic material like peat, that could be a different story. Peat fires can smoulder for quite some time,” noted McLean.

As first reported in Tuesday’s Daily Bulletin, Fort Frances Fire #189 is a peat blaze burning about 10 km west of town on the Sun Gro (formerly Normiska) property.

That fire, which was first reported Sunday, has grown to 1.8 hectares in size and currently is classified as “not under control.” An MNR FireRanger crew, assisted by Sun Gro personnel, continue to fight the fire.

Unlike surface fires, the precipitation doesn’t do much to affect ground-burning peat fires. In fact, the wet weather is a deterrent to equipment and personnel, explained McLean.

There currently are 111 active fires in the West Fire Region.

“I’m still looking at a pretty long list of fires, considering it’s the first blizzard of the season,” McLean remarked.

There currently are 13 active fires in Fort Frances District, most of which are in the Quetico Park area. These blazes have been managed as part of that park’s forest renewal plan.

Fort Frances District has seen 191 fires since the season began April 1, consuming 2,546.2 ha.

There’s been 1,715 fires in the region so far this season, consuming 142,705 ha.

While 1,715 is much higher than the 10-year average of 716, the actual hectares burned is, in fact, lower than the annual average of 180,000 ha, noted McLean.