Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry

Ontario’s forest fire season has come to an end.

Fire Information Officer Chris Marchand says overall the province saw a higher than average number of fires.

In total there were 476 fires in the Northwest of the 741 fires across the province.

“Here in Ontario we were under an escalated fire situation for a good part of the season and we made use of firefighting resources from outside of the province, such as Mexico.”

Marchand adds Ontario didn’t just receive help,. as it did offer and send aid to other provinces, including Alberta and the Northwest Territories.

While there were more fires than the average, there was a silver lining to the situation.

“The social impacts to the general public or threats to property or infrastructure played a much smaller role in the northwest fire region in 2023.”

Additionally there were far fewer problematic fires.

Of the many fires one Marchand says sticks out amongst the others, was Sioux Lookout 7, which began on May 26th 4.5 km north of Cat Lake First Nation.

Fortunately it expanded to the North and didn’t impact the community with smoke or heat as it remained active until early October.

Despite the season being over one fire continues to burn, Thunder Bay 51, located northwest of Dog Lake, is listed as under control at 20 hectares.

There are no major concerns over the fire, as Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry fire crews have contained it enough to leave and let nature take over.

—–with files from CJ Goater