More than a dozen wildfires are currently burning in Manitoba, with three considered out of control, the province’s wildfire service said Monday morning.
That’s a big increase from the number of wildfires Manitoba was battling just a few days ago.
“We were actually down to three fires going into the weekend,” Cailin Hodder of the Manitoba Wildfire Service told 680 CJOB’s Connecting Manitoba.
“Most of those (current fires) have been caused by lightning — that’s that storm system that came through the province through the weekend, and mostly in the eastern side of Manitoba.”
The stormy weekend weather wasn’t all negative, however. The rain did its part to help combat wildfires as well.
Get daily National news
“We saw some areas of Manitoba got some significant rainfall, which was great,” Hodder said.
“Even though there were some storm systems that rolled through, lightning caused fires, but quickly saw some rain support with those firefighting efforts.”
- Calgary residents tired of barrage of trash from ‘garbage tornado’
- Carney touts new construction at Quebec mine after fast-tracking major project
- Weather warnings issued across parts of southern Ontario as severe storms move through
- Alberta’s timing targets for West Coast pipeline ‘best-case scenario’: CIBC analysts
Hodder said there has thankfully been a notable drop in human-caused blazes recently, but lightning remains a threat, so the wildfire service will be actively watching the forecast over the next few days.
“As we look into the next few days, we’re seeing a culmination of high temperatures, high humidity and lightning … so obviously something we’re concerned about and going to monitor.”
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.