The Ministry of Natural Resources is ready for the 2015 fire season, which officially began April 1st
Fire information officer Jonathan Scott said Tuesday that the ministry will have the same resources in place to fight fires as it did last year. There will be no changes in crew numbers, with 101 four-person crews, to be deployed across the Northwest region.
Those resources, he said, will be coming on line over the next month or so, and will reach their full complement by early May.
There also won’t be any change in air support this year.
Nine CL-415 water bombers and three Twin Otters will be placed across the province where fire hazards dictate.
As for what to expect in fires this year, Scott said, “we do not conduct long-term forest fire predictions.”
Having said that, he noted that snow levels have increased this week everywhere except the southwest of the region, so that area could be the first to heat up this fire season.
“Snow-cleared areas would have a fire hazard first,” Scott said. “This is especially true in open fields and south facing slopes.”
This spring there’s a little less snow on the ground than in 2014, but it’s a far cry from 2012 when the snow had all but disappeared and a couple of forest fires had already been reported.