KENORA — Despite overnight precipitation and cooler temperatures, the restricted fire zone in place over much of Northwestern Ontario will stay in place until further notice.
Two First Nations in the region remain under evacuation.
The fire threatening Wabaseemoong Independent Nations, Kenora 20, is approximately two kilometres from the community, according to Alison Bezubiak, fire information officer with the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Overnight rainfall helped to "keep fire behaviour low", Bezubiak told Newswatch in an email, "but this is not enough rainfall to eliminate the threat of fire, especially considering the very dry conditions and extreme fire hazard in which this fire situation arose."
"Efforts to complete structural protection with sprinklers in the community are ongoing and this temporary break in the weather allows an opportunity for crews to get established on those parts of the fire closest to the community," added Bezubiak.
Sioux Lookout 3, the fire that forced evacuation of the Ojibway Nation of Saugeen, has shown minimal growth over the last two days, said Bezubiak. It's 1,849 hectares in size accoridng to the most recent mapping.
Wildland firefighters there have been "establishing values protection throughout the community this week and are now working with heavy equipment to begin suppression efforts to limit the potential for spread to the community," she said.
Although cooler and wetter conditions have reduced the fire hazard rating in the region, which was prediminantly low to moderate as of Friday afternoon, Bezubiak explained that some weather stations are still showing a high hazard and the MNR is expecting the hazard to rebound unless there is significant rainfall.
Overall, she says that while there has been an increase in precipitation in the region it has been accompanied by lightning "and forested areas are still extremely dry."
"When lightning strikes a tree or forest fuels it can take days, even weeks to appear," she said.
"Restricted Fire Zones are used as a fire prevention tool to reduce the risk of human-caused fires. The area for the Restricted Fire Zone was chosen based on the fire hazard and the existing fire load in the identified sectors.
"The decision to implement an RFZ now allows our firefighting resources to focus on the current fire load, as well as new and holdover fires caused by lightning."
