WESTERN MANITOULIN—If there was ever a reason to be in favour of a total fire ban with the continuation of dry conditions locally, a forest fire that took place this past Saturday in an area bordering Burpee and Mills and Campbell Township (in the municipality of Central Manitoulin) on Union Road and Scott Road should prove to be a good example. As well, a second forest fire near Birch Island was still not under control as of press deadline this past Monday.
“As the representative of the MNRF (Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry) told me after he looked at the situation, he said everything here is extremely dry,” stated Phil Gosse, Central Manitoulin fire chief. “That is the reason we are in a fire ban. Just from a little spark, three townships, over 20 firefighters and about 11 fire trucks had to be on hand to make sure this fire was put out properly. It was a small forest fire compared to what we have read and seen of firefighters in many other areas.”
“It could have gotten out of control very easily,” stated Mr. Gosse. “I know in our municipality we have had one day of rain a week that lasts maybe 10 minutes in total. It has been 11 weeks starting Sunday since we have had a proper rainfall.”
Rick Graham, fire chief for Burpee and Mills said the fire took in an area of about one acre. “It was big enough that the potential could have been way worse. The fire was in the bush, in an area where it was thick with spruce and pine trees.”
“I think we (fire departments) dumped about 40,000 gallons of water on the fire and barely got the ground wet,” said Mr. Graham. “I’m taking heat for us (Burpee and Mills) having a total fire ban, but this is why. It is just too dry.”
Mr. Gosse said the initial call of the fire was made to firefighters at 9:30 am on Saturday, August 5. “I had received a call from Rick (Graham) that they were going to investigate how bad the fire was, and I said we would be on standby. He called an hour later and said that help was needed.”
Mr. Graham told The Expositor that when the Central Manitoulin volunteer firefighters arrived, he asked Mr. Gosse to take over the scene as incident commander. He had called the MNRF for assistance as well and MNRF members had flown over by helicopter to help locate the fire area and check out the scene.
“Ken Noland (reeve of Burpee and Mills) told Rick that he has a friend with a plane (Scott Runnalls) to help find the exact location of the fire and this was put into action,” said Mr. Gosse.
When the location was found, what firefighters found was very thick forest and no path to get firefighters in or their firefighting equipment and truck.
“When we got to the site we investigated with Burpee and Mills firefighters, and Isaac my son (a firefighter) had a drone and we helped the guys, marking to locate where the fire was. We called Rob Cranston who came in with his backhoe and he cleared out a patch of eight feet wide so that we could set up all the equipment and we had access to the fire site. Fortunately, the fire was not moving fast,” he said, noting it took quite a bit of time for the access to the site to be opened.
Mr. Graham called the MNRF in Sudbury and they arrived in a helicopter about 20 minutes later. “Phil (Gosse) and his crew hadn’t showed up by then, but when he got here, he set up incident command and I initiated mutual aid,” said Mr. Graham.
“With Central Manitoulin, our trucks and Robinson Township on hand, there were 11 fire trucks at the scene at one point,” said Mr. Graham. He said the fire would follow the cracks in the limestone surface on the ground. “Everything went smoothly, and everyone worked very well together.”
With mutual aid in place, Gore Bay Fire Department and other Island fire departments were on standby.
“When we got to the fire it was no problem putting it out,” said Mr. Gosse. “But it takes time to get it out properly. After all this was done Rick took over as incident commander again and we headed back to Central. He said his firefighters would be doing checks later at night to make sure the fire hadn’t sparked again.”
“We believe the fire was caused by a lightning strike,” said Mr. Gosse.
“We were just so lucky it wasn’t windy,” said Mr. Graham. “If the wind had picked up, things would have been much worse, because the wind would have fed the embers.”
“We’re watching the fire site,” said Mr. Graham.
Once the firefighters were on the scene it took about seven hours to put the fire out.
Firefighters from Burpee and Mills and Central Manitoulin went back Sunday morning to the scene of the fire and soaked everything down once again.
“The community is amazing,” said Mr. Graham. “Local ladies prepared so much food for the firefighters. There was cooler after cooler brought in with sandwiches, water, Gatorade.”
Amy Peltonen, an MNRF fire information officer told The Expositor on Monday, a forest fire occurred on McGregor Point on Lake Huron near Birch Island on August 5. Firefighters crews and water bombers were on the scene. “The current status on the fire is that is it not under control,” she said noting that as of the early morning hours of August 6 the fire had affected 2.4 hectares.
“There are two fire ranger crews on the ground working on the fire currently,” said Ms. Peltonen on Monday. “The two fire crews are making good progress and it is expected there will be increased precipitation over the next few days that will help.” She pointed out the cause for the fire is still under investigation. Work crews will continue to remain at the location until the fire is completely extinguished.
Ms. Peltonen pointed out, “we are reminding members of the public that using drones or any type of aircraft within nine kilometres of an active fire is illegal.”
