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QUÉBEC — Quebec’s forest fire prevention agency says it is sending reinforcements to Ontario and Saskatchewan to help teams fight several forest and brush fires.
Two CL-415 firefighting aircraft and their crews will head to Dryden, Ont., while two other of the same aircraft will head to Meadow Lake, Sask.
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Quebec’s forest fire prevention agency, known as SOPFEU, says the teams departed Sunday from Quebec City.
The agency says the current situation in Quebec allows for resources to head to other provinces.
In Ontario, there were six active fires burning across the province shortly before noon Sunday, including one in Haliburton, located about 170 km north of Oshawa, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources’ interactive map.
The Saskatchewan Ministry of Public Safety map showed there were 18 active wildfires burning Sunday, for a total of 142 fires since the season began on April 1. There were 19 active fires burning in Saskatchewan on Saturday.
As well, fire bans were active on Saturday in 46 urban municipalities, 118 rural municipalities and 19 provincial parks in the province, with the fire danger considered extreme over much of the southern part of Saskatchewan.
Byron Chartrand, the executive director of land management with the SPSA, said on Friday the bans are due to the current dry conditions and have come earlier this year than in the past.
He said there’s been minimal lightning this year, so all the fires so far have been caused by human activity.
“(ATVs), you know, riding and a spark starts a fire in the dry grass. Or it could be people burning brush or something on their property that got away due to the wind, right down to other fires that could be more malicious and arson-like which are being investigated,” he explained.
Since the season began, the Quebec agency has responded to 59 fires in the province which have ravaged 38.7 hectares of forest. On Saturday, the agency asked people living in the western part of the province to be aware that the fire index level is high to very high in the region.
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