Achi news desk-
Firefighters were deployed to Oka National Park in Quebec to battle a forest fire Saturday evening.
The fire is believed to have started at Oka Skull, a popular tourist spot about 60 kilometers west of Montreal, Novo Info reported.
The Saint-Joseph-du-Lac Fire Department wrote on its Facebook page that it began treating the fire around 8:00 p.m. and was assisting Point Calumet firefighters.
A passerby wrote in a Facebook post that he noticed the fire while walking in the park and then called 911.
Javier Renault said he was walking by the north side of the skull when he first noticed smoke in the air. He said he ran over some small flames but kept walking and noticed more fires.
“I continue on and see a long line of fire, which advances slowly. I give up now, I think it’s time to call the fire department,” he wrote.
The national park said the fire was extinguished Saturday evening, although authorities were still on the scene Sunday monitoring the situation. The park reopened to hikers on Sunday.
Quebec’s forest fire prevention agency, Société de Protection des forêts contre le feu (SOPFEU), said a small team has also been deployed to the area to monitor the blaze, which is about 2 hectares in size.
According to SOPFEU, parts of western and southern Quebec are now at “high” risk of forest fire, including the Greater Montreal area, Centre-du-Québec, Lorraine and Haut-Ouah. So far, there have been three fires in Quebec this year.
The wildfire season usually starts around the beginning of April, but SOPFEU warned it could start earlier this year because the province received less snow than usual during the winter, making for drier and more fire-prone conditions.
Last year was the worst wildfire season in Quebec’s history, with more than 700 fires – most of them caused by lightning – burning 4.5 million hectares.
With files from Novo Info
