More forest fires burning through Ontario

Ontario is battling at least 89 forest fires as of noon on Wednesday.

This represents an increase of nine fires overnight, with the province reporting 80 blazes on Tuesday.

According to officials, at least 16 of these fires are listed as being “not under control.”

The majority of the province was placed within a Restricted Fire Zone in early June as the fires spread across Ontario, sending smoke throughout cities both within and outside the borders. In these areas, open fires have been banned due to a moderate or high fire risk.

One region east of Timmins, Ont. is at an extreme risk of forest fires, according to a provincial map.

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Officials say that despite recent rainfall in Ontario, forests remain “very dry.”

A large part of Ontario is experiencing a heat wave, with temperatures expected to reach the high 30s, feeling about 40 C with the humidity. Relief from the high temperatures is expected later this week.

“Because the amount of precipitation has not been great enough in some areas to lessen the subsurface fuel moisture content fire hazard, burning conditions can rebound quite quickly and as the drying trend continues, there is more build up of forest fuel available to burn,” officials noted on Ontario’s forest fire website.

“Scattered precipitation is often accompanied by lightning which can strike a tree or other forest fuels and ignite a fire under the forest floor. Once the weather dries up, winds increase and temperatures rebound, holdover lightning fires from convective activity can appear up to about a week later.”

The province says there have been 368 forest fires so far in 2023. This is three times the number of fires that were reported in this same time period last year.

It’s also higher than the 10-year average of 284 fires.

Of the fires noted by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre from April to July—which includes about 387 fires—about 120 were caused by humans, while another 267 were naturally caused.