MANITOULIN—Several fire chiefs on Manitoulin are calling for people to be careful and responsible and take all safety measures before considering having a grass fire or carrying out any type of fire. This comes after a recent spate of fires having to be responded to by local fire departments in about a week’s time.
“If people are going to be irresponsible, they need to know the consequences—they could lose their own or a neighbour’s house/structures or their lives,” stated Rick Graham, fire chief of Burpee and Mills township.
On Monday of last week, the Burpee and Mills Fire Department had to respond to a grassfire on Union Road that spread to a barn on a neighbouring property in Evansville. “When we got the fire call, I grabbed the fire truck and went to the fire. I met an older man who had been burning garbage when the fire got out of control and destroyed his lawn, getting as close as about 60 feet from his house. The fire spread to his neighbour’s property and destroyed a barn.”
“Fortunately, no one was hurt,” said Mr. Graham. “There was nothing in the barn except for a couple of bales of straw. We had to put 7,000 gallons of water on the barn.” He pointed out firefighters had to return to the scene of the fire to douse the fire after it got started again. About a couple of acres of grass was destroyed in the fire.
“I have heard there have been six or seven grass fires on the Island over the past week,” said Mr. Graham.
“Last week a guy who had a burn permit for construction materials was cleaning out brush and logs and seemed to have everything in control in one area, but an excavator came in and stirred things up after this and the fire got out of control,” said Mr. Graham. “The fire call was a report of a brush fire out of control, so I called Tim McKinlay of the Robinson Fire Department through mutual aid for backup on the fire on Ainslie Road.”
“The ground may be wet, especially with all the rain we have received in the area the past couple of days, but it will dry quickly. The ground is dry,” stated Mr. Graham last Tuesday. “The ground is moist, but the grass, trees and bush are not.”
April 1 marked the official fire season in Northern Ontario. As of this date, anyone who has a fire outdoors is required to adhere to guidelines laid down in the Forest Fire Prevention Act. “From April 1 until the end of October, people are required to have burning permits, which are free,” said Mr. Graham. He explained that in most municipalities, if someone does not have a burning permit and a fire starts they could be charged (by the municipality) per truck per hour if a fire is out of control and the local fire department has to respond to a blaze. And if the Ministry of Natural Resources has a fire ban in place, but due to someone having a fire that gets out of control and water bombers are needed to be brought in to douse it, “the ministry won’t care if it was accidental—they can and will charge a person and it will cost in the thousands of dollars. And the municipality could fine them as well.”
“It silly to be burning anything when things are as dry as they are. And definitely not when its as windy as it has been,” said Mr. Graham. “Unless we get an awful lot of rainfall, things are still dry. When I walk in the bush it is dry. All it takes for a bad fire to start is someone flipping cigarettes out the window of their car into a ditch. And even throwing a glass bottle in a ditch; it acts like a magnifying glass and can cause a fire. And water levels are five feet below what they normally are which makes it worse.”
Andrew Corbiere, M’Chigeeng First Nation fire chief said common sense needs to be foremost when someone is looking at having any kind of fire. “It is just common sense than anything else. Especially when there are high winds, don’t light a fire.”
Mr. Corbiere explained the M’Chigeeng Fire Department had to handle two fires last week. One was on Monday evening in the community. It was a fire that got out of control. Fortunately, members of the local fire department were able to contain and extinguish the fire in good time.
The grass fire on Tuesday of last week was another story. “We had to call in other fire departments through mutual aid,” said Mr. Corbiere. The fire took place on Crosshill Road near the former Abby’s Restaurant. “Someone had been burning garbage and was still tending to it but with the very high winds it got out of control.”
“The winds were taking the fire to the bush, then about half an hour into our (fire department) working on it the wind changed and the fire started going back into the area that had already been burned,” said Mr. Corbiere. He noted his appreciation to both the Central Manitoulin and Billings fire departments who were called in to assist the M’Chigeeng firefighters.
Mr. Corbiere said the ground is dry. “We might have rain but as soon the sun comes up it dries everything.”
“The whole thing is if you are going to have a fire, you need to be prepared for it in case it gets out of control,” said Mr. Corbiere. “Be sure there is a water source readily accessible, and that the area around the location of a fire is cleared of anything that can burn, do not leave a fire unattended and let the fire chief know you are having a fire.”
“One of the rules I follow is that I will not hesitate if a fire gets out of control and we can’t handle it, to call in the MNR with water bombers,” Mr. Corbiere. “People have to know before they light any type of fire that if a fire burns someone’s house, or if someone is killed because of a fire they could be held liable for this.”
“We assisted M’Chigeeng on the fire there today (Tuesday),” said Central Manitoulin fire chief Phil Gosse. “It could have been much, much worse than it was. Everything is so dry.”
Mr. Gosse said “As I will always tell people when they have a fire, don’t hesitate to call if it is getting out of control. If they think they should call the fire department they should have already.”
“We had one report of a chimney fire and the person hesitated a bit then called. I would rather put a fire out than carry out a person from a fire scene,” said Mr. Gosse. “We have had five fire calls in the past four days. Along with the grass fires and a chimney fire, there was one along the fence line on a road in the municipality.”
“The fence fire took place Tuesday at about 9 when it was raining. We have no idea how it got started and there was no one around when we got there,” said Mr. Gosse.
Mr. Gosse said, “it is way too early to have a fire ban in place. But if people aren’t being cautious then one will eventually have to be in place. I don’t like to put fire bans on. There are bylaws in place in every municipality to make things safe. Know your bylaws and if everyone follows them everything should be okay. Fire bans should be a last resort,” he said, noting local residents can view the municipal fire bylaws on the municipal website.
“I know there have been two grassfires in M’Chigeeng the past few days, including a large one today (April 2), where we were called out to help out,” said Martin Connell, Billings Township fire chief. “At the fire today, someone had been burning grass and brush piles, and with the 60 miles per hour wind gusts the fire stretched to about a kilometre long and half a kilometre wide. M’Chigeeng had called for our assistance as well as assistance from Central Manitoulin.”
“The grass, fields, and bush are all dry,” said Mr. Connell. “It doesn’t take much to get a fire started.
Dwayne Elliott, Assiginack township fire chief and co-coordinator of Manitoulin Mutual Aid said, “people need to know they could be responsible for damage caused by a fire, and having the province send in water bombers, and in some cases, municipalities could look for cost recovery as well.”
Mr. Elliott said anyone looking to have any kind of fire should review the provincial Forest Fires Prevention Act. Local residents can go to the Assiginack website and look at the community open air burning policy.
“Safety and being careful is the most important thing,” said Mr. Elliott. “Unfortunately, it looks as if this year is going to be even drier than last summer was.”
With the influx of grass fires on the Island so far this early season, Mr. Corbiere cautioned, “all the fires recently were man made and could have been prevented. If we get rain every other week during the summer we will be okay, but if there is no rain it could be scary. People need to use common sense.”
