By GLENN GARNETT
Every year fire destroys thousands of hectares of Ontario’s valuable timber resources and places the lives and property of many at risk.
For many cottagers, the only attention paid to the risk of fire may a numbered sign posted at the end of their driveways for volunteer fire crews to find them or the care taken when managing and putting out a bonfire. But fire prevention is much more involved and can make a big difference when tragedy strikes.
Not all forest fires are bad, however. Foresters will tell you they’re a healthy, natural process of the ecosystem. Fire can release nutrients locked up in logs and other organic material and open up dense forests to foster the growth of shrubs and grasses. Mother Nature is prepared for it - for instance, the resin-sealed cones of the lodgepole pine and jack pine open when fire melts the resin, scattering seed and starting a new growth cycle.
Sometimes fire can be a useful tool for forest managing agencies such as Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), with Fire Rangers managing a small, controlled burn of an area to avert a larger catastrophe.
Lightning is responsible for about 40% of the wildfires in Ontario, leaving 60% to careless smokers, kids playing with matches and other misadventures humans are err to. Fortunately for us, Ontario boasts a world-class force of emergency response firefighters who are so good, they get to take their act on the road.
Debbie MacLean, Fire Information Officer with the MNR in Dryden, Ontario, says last summer’s cool, drizzly weather made for a largely uneventful season at home for Ontario’s crack Fire Rangers. So much so that the MNR was able to dispatch them to areas in more critical need south of the border.
"Last season was below average across the province, almost record breaking," Maclean says. "However, near the end of the summer around August, there was a large contingency of Ontario Fire Rangers and fire specialists who were dispatched to the United States to assist in severe forest fires that were burning in the Midwest. Ontario made a very good showing in Montana, taking over complete management of fires near Hamilton, Montana and saving all sorts of homes and spreading great community relations along the way."
Fire detection over Ontario’s huge wooded hinterland has come a long way over the past few years. Today the MNR has a broad network of detection methods of new forest fires across the province which includes assistance from the general public and commercial airlines.
"Although lookout towers were once used extensively, they are almost obsolete now. Aerial detection rules," says Maclean.
Response ranges from local fire departments dispatched to snuff out grass fires to MNR assistance being called in tackle more troublesome blazes in the bush beyond the reach of roads and municipal fire equipment.
"In unorganized areas and on Crown land, the MNR takes direct attack on the fires," Maclean says. "In cases where fires are burning in far northern areas or perhaps on an unpopulated island on a lake, then they may take action on just part of the fire, or simply monitor it."
Fire Rangers have a wide range of weapons at their disposal in handling forest fires. Firefighters on the ground use power pumps and hoses to transport water from creeks and rivers and lakes to the fire. Sometimes they use portable water packs on their backs to put out smoldering embers. Unlike other parts of the world where hand tools are more heavily used to battle blazes, Ontario's abundance of lakes, rivers and streams allows fighting fire with water.
Air attack can include the use of CL-415 heavy waterbombers, Twin Otter fixed wing aircraft equipped with waterbombing equipment in the floats. Also at this disposal are helicopters using specially designed buckets slung under the aircraft to dip water out of a lake and then drop on spot fires within a burning area.
Cottagers are familiar with the MNR’s road signs indicating the risk of fire in their area. Maclean says a fairly complex set of calculations goes into that rather simple Low, Moderate, High or Extreme rating that people see on those signs. Weather, of course, is a key factor, with temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, wind, wind direction, and wind speed playing a big part. But these factors are then coupled with other formulas that have been developed over the years to calculate things like fine fuels such as leaves and needles, the duff layer of organic material on the forest floor, green wood versus dead wood, slash cutovers versus standing timber. All behave differently under different weather conditions and fire situations. Topography also plays a role.
"Computers do these major calculations and come up with a ‘predicted fire behaviour,’" Maclean explains. "A low fire hazard means that there is a lower chance that an ignition source such as lightning will start a fire. And if a fire does start, it is less likely to spread or if it spreads it will spread slowly. It also refers to how intensely the fire will burn."
By contrast, there might be a downpour at your cottage but the fire danger may still be extreme. "If it only rained in spots and the wind is up and the temperature is climbing , then you could see a high fire hazard on the board even if it's soaking around your cabin," Maclean says. "We'll often get people asking about this, and we explain that although it may be a certain type of weather in that area, just down the road they received nothing and so it's still not a safe bet to get out there with a fire. Wind is a specially tricky thing.
"The motto we try to promote is : If it's windy - don't burn."
Under the Forest Fires Prevention Act, the MNR can regulate the use of fire by people during the peak danger period between April 1 and October 31. Maclean says that in the past, the MNR issued fire permits for any kind of residential burning like brush or grass or incinerator - now they don't. Instead there is a list of conditions that people must meet in order to safely manage a fire - mostly to do with keeping fires small, manageable, attended at all times, having equipment nearby to fight any little escapes, not burning during the day.
You can check these conditions out on the MNR website at the Aviation and Forest Fire Management Link, www.mnr.gov.on.ca/MNR/affmb/Fire/fire.htm.
What steps can cottagers take to minimize the risk of fire? Debbie Maclean says there are all sorts of things that cottagers can do to reduce and even eliminate the risk of fire. These include:
" The whole idea is to understand the science of fire behaviour," Maclean says. "It burns faster up a slope, slows down in lush, green vegetation, while burning embers can float through the air and ignite jump fires ahead of the main fire. These embers can come from chimneys or dead vegetation.
Maclean says fire prevention practices can make the difference between people saving their cottages or losing everything they own. "I've got photos of cottage subdivisions that were burned over and you can literally see where the fire burned some cottages and skipped others and the main reason was the way people had fireproofed their properties," she notes.
In some Ontario districts, MNR fire staff can visit cottage locations to give suggestions on ways to fireproof their properties.
Photo: © Gary Black/Wonderfile www.wonderfile.com
