Northern Ontario wildfires continue to rage with 183 reported by province
· Toronto Sun
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OTTAWA — One hundred and eighty-three wildfires continue to rage across northern Ontario, triggering evacuations and highway closures.
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Data provided by Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources on Monday evening and during the day on Tuesday showed the province’s northwestern regions as the hardest hit, home to 140 separate active fires — with 47 classified as out of control.
In the province’s northeast, officials had counted 43 active fires — five classified as out of control, five considered under control, one being successfully held by provincial fire crews and 32 fires under observation.
Thunder Bay 36, the province’s largest fire, had blackened 318,000 hectares (786,000 acres) of northern Ontario forest and continues to grow.
Two fires out of control near Fort Frances
Farther west along the Canada-U.S. border, two large fires near the border town of Fort Frances — classified as Fort Frances 14 and Fort Frances 15 — were likewise considered out of control.
Those two fires had so far burned around 51,806 hectares (128,000 acres) and around 41,830 hectares (103,300 acres) respectively.
To the north, the fire classified as Sioux Lookout 72, near Cat Lake First Nation about 275 km northwest of Kenora, had so far burned 23,597 hectares (58,300 acres).
That fire was also classified as out of control.
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Evacuations continuing
Evacuation orders were in place for communities around a number of hot spots, including Thunder Bay, Dryden and Fort Frances, as well as the Gull Bay First Nation on the western shores of Lake Nipigon, about 150 km north of Thunder Bay.
During a news conference on Monday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the fires had scorched around 735,000 hectares — an increase from the 650,000 hectares that were reported burned late last week.
While southern Ontario has so far been spared from more wildfire smoke thanks to changes in prevailing winds, Toronto earned the distinction last week of having the worst air pollution of any city on Earth , beating out Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lahore, Pakistan, and Delhi, India, for poor air quality.
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