Christina Handley was enjoying a quiet afternoon outdoors Aug. 9 when the unmistakable roar of a speeding fire truck cut the silence around her Burnt Lake property.
Located about three kilometres from a 27-hectare wildfire that’s been active since around 5 p.m. Saturday, Handley said it was a tense 24-hours after finding out about the blaze.
“It’s scary, that’s for sure. We’re right in Burnt River, so the fire would have to change direction and hop the highway and the river to actually reach us, but that’s not an impossibility with these dry conditions,” she told The Highlander in an Aug. 12 interview.
After seeing a couple more firetrucks whiz by, Handley hopped in her vehicle to see what was going on. Shortly after pulling onto East Line, she saw a huge plume of smoke billowing in the distance.
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources’ (MNR) Evan Lizotte, the fire was still burning out of control at noon Aug. 13. He noted the blaze is located 1.6 kilometres west of Hwy. 49 and 1.7 kilometres south of Hwy. 121. The City of Kawartha Lakes closed the closest portion of Hwy. 49 on Saturday. It was still closed as of press time.
Lizotte said the fire has been tied in, meaning suppression efforts intended to secure its perimeter have been successful.
No weekend blazes in Haliburton County
Despite that, the fire – the equivalent of 66 football fields – is still listed as not under control with five MNR crews actively working on it.
“That area is seeing a high to extreme fire hazard, which means the chance for the fire to spread is the greatest it can be,” Lizotte said. He noted the ministry had not called an evacuation of nearby residences and that the cause is still being determined.
Four other nearby fires were also being tracked over the weekend, though all had been brought under control as of 5 p.m. Aug. 12. A small blaze broke out south of Dale Lake in Algonquin Park Aug. 11 but was quickly put out.
Handley said she and her husband saw three waterbombers fill up on Four Mile Lake on Saturday and one each on Sunday and Monday. She didn’t see any on Tuesday, which she’s hoping is good news.
They have cattle on a pasture between their home and the fire – Handley has been making extra trips out to make sure they’re okay.
“I’ve been going at least six times a day, but it doesn’t seem to be bothering them. The fire is close, but it’s across the lake. It seemed to be travelling away from them, but the minute the wind changes those cows will be coming out of there,” she said.
Darlene Mann, who lives just off Hwy. 121, said that, living in the bush and seeing how prevalent forest fires have become over the past two years, she’s been worried about something like this happening.
“The concern is it growing and spreading to populated areas… you don’t want to go anywhere for the day.”
County extends fire ban
Michael French, the County’s fire coordinator, confirmed the fire ban implemented Aug. 5 has been extended to at least Aug. 19.
While all of the area fires MNR has responded to carry the name ‘Haliburton’, French said that’s only because the ministry headquarters, which responds to calls, is located in Stanhope. None of the weekend blazes were within County borders, he said.
French said there was a small fire in Dysart on Monday, which the Dysart and Algonquin Highlands departments responded to, but that was quickly extinguished.
With little rain in the seven-day forecast, he reminded people to follow the rules, no open-flame fires whatsoever.
“This could happen to us just as easily, it really could. Because of the ice storm, there’s so much debris down that it wouldn’t take much for something to start,” French said. “The potential is always there… we had some rain on Saturday night, but there was a lot of lightning strikes that came with that.
“Lightning strikes are our biggest fear right now because 50 per cent of fires come from lightning strikes. We do have issues where people are burning and it gets away from them, but the majority of these things [start] from natural causes,” he added.
For up-to-date information on active fires in the region, visit ontario.ca/fireupdates.
