North Bay's Fire Chief says he is getting his personnel ready for what could be a challenging season for spring grass fires.
"We are really down on our moisture content in the bush," said Jason Whiteley, North Bay's fire chief.
"So there's a real concern with that. Fortunately for this part of Ontario, in discussions with the Minstry of Natural Resources and Forestry last week, the weather forecast system, the pattern is going to shift and you know, right now they're forecasting a hotter but wetter spring than usual.
"So if we get that, it is going to decrease the fire risk, but if we don't get it, we're really worried.
"We are starting already to see many grass fires down south because the bush is as dried out as a tinderbox with everything being dead."
Whiteley, who also holds the title of Director Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs and Ontario representative on the National Advisory Council for the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs believes a potential dry spring will not just be a North Bay area problem this season.
He says they are already preparing for it.
"So every spring we do a coordinated training with the local MNRF team that's programmed again, but this year because we've identified a risky season, we're really enhancing the training we're putting everybody back through what we call SP 103, which is a ministry Natural Resources wildland training program for municipal firefighters," he said.
Whiteley believes the community can do its part in the spring as well by respecting fire bans and being smart when doing any kind of burning.
"We always encourage safe burning as part of the burning permit," notes Whiteley.
"It's on the back of everybody's permit that gets a permit was allowed to have an outdoor fire.
"If you have a fire within the brush area and you cause a forest fire, the cost can be substantial because the Ministry of Natural Resources can come back and charge you for the whole cost of fighting that fire and it's expensive to have air bombers. I think they're $8,000 to $10,000 an hour to have a water bomber.
"Plus there's penalties and fines on top of that as well."
