Alexandra Paul
WINNIPEG -- The reeve for the municipality where the Manitoba's biggest forest fire raged this weekend blames an ATV derby and 600 four-wheelers roaring through the forest as the likely cause of the blaze. "By noon [Saturday], they knew they had a fire on their hands and they knew they had to shut ‘er down," Piney Reeve Marvin Hovorka said Sunday evening. The derby ended abruptly about 1 p.m. -- four hours early.
Meanwhile, the derby organizers, ATV Pathfinders, blocked public access Sunday to a website about the derby in response to media calls asking organizers to comment on a possible link between ATVs and the fire.
Conservation investigators are also looking at the derby as "highly suspicious" as the province examines various causes for the fire which officials say was caused by human hands.
The fire started at 1 p.m. near Woodridge in the Sandilands Provincial Forest as hundreds of ATV drivers ripped through 45 kilometres of trail. Woodbridge is about 100 kilometres southeast of Winnipeg.
The fire was still out of control Sunday when it had burned through 3,400 hectares.
Crews Sunday evening were grateful to thunderstorms and rain for putting a damper on the fire. Tom Mirus, manager of Manitoba Conservation's fire program, said Sunday that investigators had pegged the cause to a spot near the location where the derby was held and called the coincidence "highly suspicious."
The ATV derby went ahead as scheduled Saturday afternoon despite warnings of dry conditions.
The reeve, however, said he holds the derby's organizers and conservation officials equally responsible.
"Conservation is quick to ticket you if you have a bonfire, but this? They seem to stand back and say the public has a right to get out and four wheel," Hovorka said.
However, Conservation officials said the Manitoba Forest Act, unlike laws regulating provincial parks, doesn't require permits for any recreational activity like ATV derbies.
"We know ATVs cause forest fires," Mr. Mirus said. "But when the Forest Act was written I don't think anybody anticipated derbies with 600 ATVs in the forest."
Mr. Mirus said an ATV can easily spark a fire. "It's just the heat from a muffler against the dry grass and you've got a fire. They don't even realize they've started a fire," Mr. Mirus said.