There were 27 active forest fires burning in Manitoba as of June 25 - all of them here in the Northeast Region.
"Patrol work on the fire lines in the War Lake/Ilford and York Landing community areas continues," Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship said June 25. There have been 168 forest fires to date this year as of June 25, consuming 127,239 hectares.
"Some weak instability moving through in the upper flow is producing some cloud cover in southern sections," of Northern Manitoba this morning, Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship said in their June 25 daily fire weather forecast. "Conditions this afternoon look fair with northeast winds of 20 km/h and a drop in humidity in eastern sections but temperatures not high enough for cross overs today." A crossover is the point at which the relative humidity is less than, or equal to, the ambient air temperature and may be used as an indicator of extreme burning conditions. "A system moving up from the southwest will increase clouds tomorrow afternoon from Thompson and west, with a chance of showers by tomorrow evening, while eastern sections stay dry."
Environment Canada is forecasting sunny skies for Gillam tomorrow and a high of 26C. the normal June 26 high is seven degrees cooler at 19C. Dale Marciski, a meteorologist with the Meteorological Service of Canada in Winnipeg for Environment Canada, said in an e-mail June 25 that "the precipitation amount for Gillam Airport for June 1-24 is only 6.0 mm. The normal for June (the entire 30 days) is 53.9 mm. So it is well below normal, so far at least."
The last few months have seen most of the weather systems bypassing Northeastern Manitoba, Marciski said, with the heavier precipitation over western areas of the province instead.
"Interestingly, the record driest June in Gillam was in 1989 when there was 13.6 mm of precipitation," he said. "So this June, at least so far, Gillam is drier than that. Of course there is still another week to go."
May was also dry, Marciski said, with only 10.2 mm of precipitation recorded at Gillam Airport. "The normal is 44.2 mm. That wasn't record breaking however. The record driest May was in 1981 with only 5.5 mm."
Scott Powell, media relations and production supervisor for Manitoba Hydro's corporate communications, said June 25, "the Keeyask infrastructure camp is back up and running as of today, with approximately 150 staff on site. Staff began to return on Thursday, June 21 to assist with re-establishment of camp operations. It took about four days to install new hydro poles that were damaged by the fire and get electrical service restored to the camp, then sanitize the water supply lines, fill up potable and fire protection water tanks, clean and re-stock the kitchen, and perform a general clean up of the camp and bunkhouses. Despite the fire coming very close to our facilities, there was no damage to the camp itself (other than the burnt hydro poles along P.R. 280).
"The bush area around the camp has been burnt, so there is no immediate danger from fire in the immediate vicinity. However, we are told other small fires are in the region and being monitored by Manitoba Conservation."
Eleven helicopters, six Bombardier CL-415 and CL-215 Manitoba water bombers and 202 extra firefighters were involved in fire suppression activities Tuesday.
Ilford-War Lake NE Fire 065 and Keeyask NE Fire 063, both started by lighting almost two weeks ago on June 6, continue to burn out of control, and have necessitated the evacuation of about 500 people from York Landing, south of Split Lake, and home of the York Factory First Nation, War Lake First Nation Band and Ilford, and Manitoba Hydro's Keeyask infrastructure camp.
Evacuees have been sent to Gillam, Thompson and Brandon over the last couple of weeks.
NE Fire 065 was 50,500 hectares in size as of June 25, while NE Fire 063 was18,600 hectares in size.
York Landing, south of Split Lake, is the home of the York Factory First Nation, on the north bank at the mouth of the Aiken River, which spills into Split Lake on the Lower Nelson River system, about 116 kilometres northeast from Thompson. York Landing was established and settled by the Cree people of the York Factory Indian Band in the summer of 1957. The Cree community was relocated by the Government of Canada from their traditional homeland and territory located where the Hayes and Nelson Rivers spill into Hudson Bay.
Ilford, with a population of 141, according to Statistics Canada, is approximately 145 kilometres northeast of Thompson by air.
Ilford is a Northern Affairs community, which is a local government body assisted in its administration by Manitoba's Department of Aboriginal and Northern Affairs.
The community originated as a construction and service centre during the building of the Hudson Bay Railway. Later it served as a marshalling point for prospectors during the Island Lake gold rush, and then as a similar marshal ling point for the network of winter freight roads going east from Ilford. Ilford is also home to members of the War Lake First Nation Band on the Ilford Indian Settlement.
Gillam, with a population of 1,281 in 2011, according to Statistics Canada, is 302 kilometres northeast of Thompson by road and 206 kilometres by air. Gillam Airport has a 5,034-foot long gravel runway.
The town is normally accessible by road, rail and air. It was the railway that brought permanent settlement to Gillam in 1912 at Mile 330. The main street in town is Railway Avenue. Along the Bayline, the stations and stops between Gillam and Churchill include Bird, Avery, Weir River, Thibaudeau, Herchmer, O'Day, McClintock, Chesnaye and Tidal. The Bayline to Churchill was completed in 1929.
Gillam was incorporated as the Local Government District (LGD) of Gillam on May 1, 1966 and became a town on Jan. 1, 1997.
In 1960, Manitoba Hydro began massive hydro-electric projects along the Nelson River. Most of the Gillam area is settled within six kilometres of the Nelson River and almost half of the employees in Gillam work for Manitoba Hydro full time.
Gillam's population has been as high as 2,839 in 1976 and as low as 1,178 in 2001. About half the population is aboriginal, primarily Cree.
The provincial Conservation Fire Program is responsible for the detection and suppression of wild fires in Manitoba.
The program manages all human and equipment resources needed for fighting wild fires in the province. Staff monitors weather patterns, lightning strikes, soil moisture and forest conditions to determine the probability and location of wild fires. Manitoba's Fire Program works in close co-operation with other forest firefighting agencies and jurisdictions. Equipment and other resources are shared through the Winnipeg-based Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.
Manitoba's forest fire program uses early fire detection technology and lightning strike satellite tracking, air patrols and calls to the fire reporting line. Open fires are prohibited from April 1 to Nov. 15 annually except under a burning permit or in approved fire pits such as campfire pits in provincial campsites.
Various fire attributes are modeled with the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System and Forest Fire Behaviour Prediction System developed by the Canadian Forest Service. Fire weather indices are modeled on the basis of weather station data and include ratings for fine fuel moisture, duff moisture, drought, and initial spread, build up and fire weather. The Forest Fire Behaviour Prediction System uses information on fire weather, fuel type, topography, and foliar moisture content to predict the rate of spread, fire intensity, type of fire, and fuel consumption.
The Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System consists of six components that account for the effects of fuel moisture and wind on fire behaviour. The Canadian Forest Fire Behaviour Prediction System provides quantitative estimates of potential head fire spread rate, fuel consumption, and fire intensity, as well as fire descriptions.
With the aid of an elliptical fire growth model, it gives estimates of fire area, perimeter, perimeter growth rate, and flank and backfire behaviour.
The first three components, the fuel moisture codes, are numeric ratings of the moisture content of litter and other fine fuels, the average moisture content of loosely compacted organic layers of moderate depth, and the average moisture content of deep, compact organic layers.
The remaining three components are fire behaviour indices, which represent the rate of fire spread, the fuel available for combustion, and the frontal fire intensity; their values rise as the fire danger increases.
The Lower Atmospheric Severity Index (LASI) is also used to quantify the potential for forest fire growth. The index was developed by USDA Forest Service research meteorologist Don Haines and is commonly called the "Haines Index." It is a way to measure the atmosphere's contribution to the growth potential of a wildfire. The Haines Index combines two atmospheric factors that are known to have an effect on wildfires: Stability and dryness.
Stability describes the tendency for vertical air motion in an airmass. A stable atmosphere tends to discourage any vertical air motion while an unstable atmosphere promotes it. A wildfire stands a much better chance of growing large in an unstable airmass because vertical motion encourages the growth of the smoke column. This increases the chance of spotting and crowning and a very strong smoke column can eventually create its own wind becoming a plume-dominated fire.
The drier the airmass, the drier the fuels are likely to be. More combustive energy is released and fire spread is enhanced.
The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre opened on June 2, 1982 with a mandate to "provide operational forest fire management services to member agencies that will, by agreement, gather, analyze and disseminate fire management information to ensure a cost-effective sharing of resources; and actively promote, develop, refine, standardize and provide services to member agencies that will improve forest fire management in Canada."
The federal government contributes one-third of the centre's operating costs. The provinces and territories on the basis of their inventoried productive forestland fund the remaining two-thirds. British Columbia, for example, with large tracts of forest, pays 17 per cent of the two-thirds while Prince Edward Island pays only 0.1 per cent.
