It does not take long for things to swing from one extreme to the other here in Red Lake. It was not even a month ago when people in town were complaining about how much snow and ice there was, and now there are forest fires popping up! Yesterday a fire started at the southeast side of Medicinstone lake. As the crow flies, it is only 5 miles from our camp. It is the closest a fire has been to us since we took over 9 years ago. I drove the ATV up to the top of an adjacent hilltop (our hunters know it as North Wall) to get a better look as to how dangerous it was. I watched for 20 minutes as the smoke rose high into the air. There was 2 helicopters, a spotting plane and 4 water bombers working on trying to get control of the fire. You can see th bombers in a couple of the pictures below.
According to the fire headquarters, the fire has grown from 55 hectares to 95 hectares (approx. 250 square acres) over night. Fortunately for our camp, the wind is in our favor and as of right now there is no immediate danger to us. But with no substantial rain in the forecast, it will a tough job for the fire crews to get the fire out. We will try to keep everyone updated. The link to the active fires map is http://www.ontario.ca/law-and-safety/forest-fires.
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| This is looking East towards Red Lake. Suffel Lake is just over the hill on the left side of the picture. |
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It took the squadron of 4 water bombers less than 5 minutes to pick up water from
Red Lake and return to drop it on the fire. |
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