New Brunswick’s wildfire prevention officer says this year’s forest fire season was well above average.
Roger Collet said there were 457 fires between May and October, nearly double the 10-year average of 235.
“We had a significant year compared to what our 10-year average is,” said Collet.
Collet said while most fires typically start in the spring and are out quickly, that was not the case this year.
“A lot of fires started the end of May and into June,” said Collet. “Normally we have more rain and stuff about that time of year so things are greening up, but this year we actually had pretty dry conditions so we were having a lot more fires that took a lot more time to extinguish.”
More than 1,300 hectares of land was burned by this year’s fire, four times more than usual. But Collet noted one of the fires near Blackville was more than 800 hectares in size.
As for what caused all of the fires this spring and summer, Collet said the causes vary.
“They range from accidental — somebody didn’t properly extinguish their campfires — to some are intentionally lit. In the springtime, some people like to burn off their meadows and stuff like that,” he said. “Some are industrial, so forest operations, there were a few that were caused by train tracks, so a spark coming off the rails.”
With so many fires in such a short period of time, Collet said it was a busy time for Natural Resources and Energy Development staff, along with others.
“The volunteer fire departments, the municipal fire departments. Forest industry, some of their forestry workers, we used their crews quite often. We brought in aircraft from Quebec twice and aircraft from Newfoundland once to help,” he said.
Forest fire season runs from May 1 to Oct. 31 in New Brunswick.
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