Fisheries, Forestry and Agrifoods
October 21, 2016

Protecting the Forest Resource

Fire Starts During 2016 Forest Fire Season Below 10-Year Average

Forty-eight per cent of the 90 forest fire starts reported during the 2016 forest fire season can be linked to early spring fires and the practice of burning grass. While the number of starts is well below the 10-year average of 120, more can always be done to reduce the risk of wildfire.

"Although the number of fires this season was significantly lower, we still experienced a majority of reported fire starts which were caused by people. Our fire prevention program will continue to learn from this past season to continue to raise awareness on being more careful and reducing preventable fires."
- The Honourable Steve Crocker. Minister of Fisheries, Forestry and Agrifoods

The most common issues this year were fires left unattended, or fires started when conditions were dry. Dry conditions are compounded during spring when dead grass becomes flammable especially if there have been drying winds. Grass fires burn hot and fast, and spread quickly.

During the forest fire season, 11 forest firefighters, and four Incident Management Team (IMT) personnel from Newfoundland and Labrador were deployed to assist with the Fort McMurray fire in Alberta. The deployments were made through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) under the Mutual Aid Resource Sharing (MARS) Agreement. Two other IMT personnel were deployed through CIFFC this past spring, one to the CIFFC office in Winnipeg and one to Ontario.

"In addition to helping Canadians and communities, these deployments support recent efforts of the Forestry Services Branch in incident management training. Our staff do tremendous work to protect our forests, property and people and these deployments provide our staff with valuable experience that further fire management capacity in this province."
- Minister Crocker

In August, also under the MARS agreement, an aircraft was deployed to help firefighting efforts in Nova Scotia, and three firefighters and one aircraft were deployed to Terra Nova National Park, under Parks Canada, to assist in a prescribed burn.

QUICK FACTS:

• The 2016 forest fire season in Newfoundland and Labrador began May 1 on the island portion of the province and on May 15 in Labrador. The season ended on September 30.
• Ninety fire starts were recorded, which is below the 10-year average of 120 fires annually. Approximately 11,000 hectares were burned, which is below the 10-ten year average of 35,000 hectares.
• This is the third successive year that personnel from Newfoundland and Labrador have assisted firefighters in western Canada.
• The Provincial Government operates a fleet of five water bombers strategically situated in Gander, Deer Lake, St. John's, Happy Valley-Goose Bay and Wabush.

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Media contact:

Vanessa Colman-Sadd Director of Communications Department of Fisheries, Forestry and Agrifoods 709-729-3733, 682-6593 VanessaColmanSadd@gov.nl.ca

2016 10 21            9:50 a.m.