Forest-fire season off to a calm start
Government reminds people to remain vigilant about wildfires as they are expected to increase with warmer, drier weather
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Friday, June 3, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The forest-fire season so far has been substantially less severe than the previous two years.
An Electra aircraft, operated by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, drops fire retardant on a blaze near Madeline Lake about 25 km northeast of Yellowknife on May 14. This is the only major fire the department has had to deal with so far this season. - NNSL file photo |
That is according to Richard Olsen, manager of fire operations for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR). He updated the media with his weekly conference call on Monday.
Olsen said there has only been two fires reported this season - one near Madeline Lake, northeast of Yellowknife last month and a very small fire on the side of the road this past weekend near Kakisa, not far from the junction of Highways 1 and 3.
Both fires are believed to have been human-caused - and both are out, Olsen said, adding the two fires have burned just over 0.08 square kilometres.
"In comparison to the last couple of years where we were well over 40 fires and over (60 square kilometres) burned at this point of time in the season," Olsen said. "Our 20-year average has us at six fires and a little over (20 square kilometres) burned at this time of year. It has been quiet so far."
Olsen said rainfall is the main reason fire numbers are down. He said most areas of the NWT have received decent rainfall, as much as a half-inch recently. Yellowknife received 4.2 millimetres of rain on Saturday - albeit lightly - for most of the day. Olsen said however that the cooler, damper weather we've had for the past couple of weeks is forecast to end. Yellowknife should see sunny skies with highs in the upper teens and low 20s for the remainder of the week.
"As we move into June we expect that the traditional dry conditions and fire risk will increase," Olsen said. "All of our fire crews ... are on strength. Three of our four air tankers will be operational this week with one new air tanker group starting in Yellowknife."
Olsen said about 96 firefighters are 50 support staff are currently on standby, ready to deal with any wildfires in the NWT at a moment's notice.
He said because it has been slow here on the fire front, 36 of the territory's firefighters continue to help in the Fort McMurray area as well as with another fire on the Alberta-B.C. border in the Peace River, Alberta region.
Olsen said those firefighters who are in Alberta right now are picking up some invaluable experience.
"Fort McMurray is sort of a boreal forest area, similar to areas in the NWT, Where they are likely gaining a lot of value is participating with a larger organization, in Fort McMurray, that brings in people from all over Canada and all over the world right now," Olsen said. "They get an opportunity to see different management styles and how our management styles are similar."
Olsen said he feels very good about the slow start of the fire season but would like to keep it that way. He is asking people out on the land to continue to be very careful with their fires.
