After Dry Winter, Quebec Forest Fires 5X 5-Year Average, Ontario 2X 10-Year Average - Reuters

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TORONTO - A winter of unusually little snow has brought five times the normal level of forest fires to parts of Central Canada, prompting other provinces to fly in extra help, and bringing small scale evacuations of rural settlements. Quebec has already reached a "critical" burn level several times this year and is experiencing a five-fold increase in burned land from its five-year average, officials said.

"It's not unprecedented, but in recent years we've had much less fire activity than we've seen this year," said Jacques Nadeau, spokesman for the Forest Fire Protection Society of Quebec, which puts out fires for the provincial government.

In Northwestern Ontario, drought-like conditions in April and May nearly doubled its 10-year fire average, said regional fire information officer Travis Moffatt. "We've had a very busy spring fire season, and that's directly attributable to the very dry forest conditions that we've seen," Moffatt said from Dryden, Ontario.

This past winter was the second driest on record for Quebec and Ontario, leaving little moisture as the snow melted. Camp fires, sparks from trains and lighting all caused fires.

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