NEEBING — Emergency services in rural municipalities outside Thunder Bay are encouraging people to respect ongoing fire bans.
Fawn Kellar, a captain and the public information officer with Neebing Emergency Services, said prohibitions on outdoor burning are in effect in Neebing and a number of other incorporated rural municipalities like Oliver-Paipoonge, Gillies and O’Connor.
Kellar said, despite some relatively recent rainfall and some yards still being damp or wet, a lot of the water hasn’t been fully absorbed into the ground, meaning grass that hasn’t turned green yet and residual deadfall is still very flammable.
“We're still finding that that's our biggest issue right now is departments are ending up at wildfires and once the wildfire starts, there's no stopping it,” she said. “There's just so much fuel laying on top of the ground right now that … it's very easy for them to kind of get away from any homeowner and even some of the fire departments.”
Sun and wind also dry the ground out quickly, she added.
Kellar said unorganized townships (like Nolalu) can’t institute their own burn bans as they have to wait for the Ministry of Natural Resources to institute a restricted fire zone. As of Wednesday afternoon, the MNR didn’t have one in place.
Nolalu’s volunteer fire department said in a Facebook post, despite that, it is urging “extreme caution at this time,” adding that “out of respect for our neighbours who do have fire bans in place, that you reconsider burning.”
Many of the rural fire bans have been in place for about a week or so, and Kellar said she thinks they’re working.
“I think they're doing what they're supposed to be doing and people are being a lot more careful and we're just not having those accidental ignitions,” she said, adding that something as seemingly innocuous like a spark from a controlled bonfire can easily ignite.
East of Thunder Bay, Shuniah’s fire chief Blair Arthur said his community isn’t under a fire ban and they haven’t been quite as busy recently in terms of responding to outdoor fires, but he’s encouraging people to follow the rules and to prepare for any outdoor burning.
“Having a source to extinguish the fire would be ultimately the most important,” he said.
Back in Neebing, the emergency services Facebook page also pointed to strained resources, like having enough fire trucks at the ready, and burnout of volunteer fire crews as being other effects of frequently being called to blazes.
“They're doing this out of the goodness of their heart, and I think that's what makes them incredible humans, but it's also what makes it hard to attract new members,” Kellar said.
“I know Neebing went to three fires last week — I, personally, was working two of them and I don't even think I was awake for two hours after I got home after the second one because we were just so exhausted.”
