Photo courtesy of the MNRF.

Around 40 fires continue to burn in Northwestern Ontario with a fire hazard which is high to extreme across the region.

A restricted fire zone remains in effect, which as Fire Information Officer Chris Marchand explains has been helpful and is thanking the public for their cooperation.

“We really do appreciate the public’s help in limiting additional human caused fires that would add to our workload, and human caused fires do account for 30 to 50 percent of the fires we respond to here in the region.”

So far this forest fire season there have been 160 fires in the Northwest, burning more than 45 thousand hectares.

Marchand says there is some rain in the forecast this weekend but it is hard to tell if it will make a difference.

“We’re always wary about forecasts until we see that rain firmly in the rain gauge its hard to count on it. As long as we see no meaningful rain coming down we’d expect that regional fire count to continue climbing.”

Fortunately fire crews have managed to hold their own in the Northwest, with only a few AT-802 aircraft known as the “Fire Boss”, which work in groups of three or four each with a water bombing capacity of 3000 litres.

Those aircraft are on loan from Minnesota.