The Chapleau district's seen another forest fire as efforts continue to address a major fire near Gogama.
Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources says "Chapleau 5" was confirmed Monday - on the west side of Highway 17 about 400 metres south of Old Highway 17 Road - though it was already brought under control at a tenth of a hectare in size - the Timmins district also saw a new blaze about two-thirds of a kilometre west of Trotter Lake and 1.75 kilometres south of Ahsine Lake - it was already 3 hectares in size and not yet under control.
Meanwhile, "Timmins 9" is still not under control, but remains about 3154 hectares in size - it was initially reported around 464 on May 31st - the ministry says bucketing helicopters worked to support ground crews and heavy equipment, who continue to make good progress with fire suppression, with 15 Ontario FireRanger crews, a 20-person Incident Management Team, 4 pieces of heavy equipment, and 5 helicopters assigned to the wildland fire, which is located about ten kilometres from Gogama, 7 west of Mattagami First Nation, and 1.5 west of Highway 144.
It has prompted travel restrictions in the Gogama area, along with an OPP warning to be careful while driving in the Northeast as changing weather conditions could spread smoke quickly, posing a driving hazard.
The fire hazard is mostly high across the Northeast - there is a large pocket of extreme hazard in this area - with a couple pockets of moderate or extreme region.