The busiest day of the year to date is in the books for Ministry of Natural Resources fire crews.
Response and Operations Manager Dave Cleavely says they were stretched to the limit on Saturday and had firefighters on standby from Thunder Bay and Geraldton.
Cleavely says the largest fire was burning near Shoal Lake First Nation.
He says the blaze quickly grew to 350-hectares in size and threatened the community, the pipeline, the highway and a bunch of tourist camps.
At the same time a fire broke out in the Lac Seul area at Deception Bay.
Cleavely says the 12-hectare fire started in some slash piles and cut wood and it cut off access to the road.
The MNR was able to get a handle on both fires.
Cleavely says gusting winds, warm dry conditions and high humidity provided a recipe for disaster.
There were five fires reported on Saturday.
