The snow has melted and the landscape is finally greening up across southern New Brunswick, which is good news for the forest fire season.
Despite recent rain and flooding, a few grass fires have already been reported.
The landscape is quickly turning from brown to green which officials say will help.
Roger Collet, a wildfire prevention officer with the province, said 2018 turned out to be an average year for fires.
“We may have had a few more fires — 50 or 60 fires more than our 10-year average — but it’s pretty normal,” said Collet.
Even though 2018 was an average year for the number of fires, Collet said it was a bit unusual in terms of when the fires happened.
“About 60 per cent of our fires happened in pre-green-up and 40 per cent happened in the summertime,” he said.
In an average year, Collet says about 70 per cent of forest fires occur in the spring prior to green up with the remainder during the summer months.
Many parts of southern New Brunswick have already been closed to burning this spring. The forest fire index is updated each day at 2 p.m.
