Quebec has lifted a ban on open fires in large parts of the province.
The province’s wildfire prevention agency, SOPFEU, announced Monday night that a fire ban affecting nearly the entire province was being lifted.
However, the ban remains in place for Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Lanaudière, Laurentians, Northern Quebec and Outaouais.
It was put in place on July 7 after a surge in wildfires in the northern parts of the province.
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An additional 43 firefighters from British Columbia and 60 from Alberta arrived in Quebec on July 8 to aid in suppression efforts, SOPFEU said in a news release.
The Ministry of Internal Security said Monday the decision to amend the area covered by the ban is “motivated by current weather conditions and takes into account the current workload.”
There are currently nine forest fires burning in the Intensive Protection Zone (IPZ), which includes much of the southern populated region of the province. Of these fires, SOPFEU says two remain out of control.
An additional 175 fires are burning in the Northern Zone.
Since the beginning of the wildfire season, SOPFEU says there have been 297 fires in the IPZ and 272 in the Northern Zone, burning more than 660,000 hectares.
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