There have been 73 forest fires in Newfoundland and Labrador so far this year, resulting in 699 hectares of burned land. That’s down significantly from the province’s average of 116 fires and 35,324 hectares burned over the past 10 years, according to a news release Wednesday issued by the Department of Fisheries and Land Resources. Eighty-seven per cent of the total area burned this year occurred in one forest fire near Edwards Island in Labrador. The remaining 13 per cent of forest area burned in the province consisted of small fires on the island and other parts of Labrador. Seventy-nine per cent of forest fires occurring in 2017 were less than one hectare in size.