A huge spike in the number of forest fires in northwestern Ontario.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry reports seventy new fires as of late Tuesday night.
Two-thirds of those blazes were within the Ministry’s Sioux Lookout and Red Lake fire districts.
Six of them were in the Rainy River district.
Others were in the MNRF’s fire district of Dryden (10), Kenora (6), Nipigon (3) and Thunder Bay (1).
There are now 165 active blazes. Eighty-four are considered not under control.
The forest fire hazard is high to extreme in the southern Nipigon and Thunder Bay districts as well as the areas of Red Lake, Dryden and Sioux Lookout districts.
The rest of the region is low to moderate after storm systems pass, dropping some moisture.
The rain did help slow two large fires that have been threatening the remote First Nation communities of Deer Lake and Poplar Hill.
With files from Tim Davidson and Randy Thoms