Investigators probing cause of major marsh fire
Officials are continuing to investigate the cause of the massive fire Wednesday at Point Pelee National Park that burned at least 125 hectares of grassy marsh.
The blaze lit up the sky Wednesday night and continued to burn through Thursday.
The park reopened on Friday but the source of fire has not yet been determined.
“The park’s had information that came forward after the fact,” said Deputy Chief Mike Bradt of the Leamington Fire Department. “They’re going to investigate further.”
Parks Canada spokesman Louis Lavoie said it’s standard procedure to investigate any unplanned fires.
“We do not know for sure what is the root cause of the fire,” Lavoie said.
“It could be natural or not and so we will not speculate on that because we have to make a thorough review of everything. When we can pinpoint that cause we will certainly share that information.”
Lavoie said the fire started somewhere in the northwest corner of the marsh close to the boardwalk. It spread rapidly through the very dry marsh grasses.
He credited the “amazing support we received from the Leamington Fire Department and the OPP” along with the work of trained park staff for the fact no visitor infrastructure was damaged.
But the timing of the fire, very early in spring, was a best-case scenario ecologically speaking.
“In a way it does have some benefit in that the timing of the fire was not entirely bad because if it would have been a few weeks later it would have been difficult for the bird population,” he said, adding that at this time of the year the birds are not nesting and could quickly move out of the way of the flames.
In addition, the burn will help new growth get a fresh start by clearing out the dense old growth.
“In a natural environment, fire happens all the time and really this is part of an eco-system — fire and flooding — so in this case because there was not casualties or injuries or park infrastructure damage there is (a bright side to it),” he said.
Bradt said his department was continuing to monitor the area for flare-ups on Friday but the recent rains helped to extinguish and cool down the remaining hot spots.