Northwestern Ontario accounts for close to 60 per cent of the forested areas of the province that were destroyed by fire this year. In its season-ending report, the province’s Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services section also noted that 85 per cent of the 776 fires this year occurred in the northwest region. But, as a whole, fire damage across Ontario was on par with the 10-year average. There were 776 fires, burning 112,000 hectares. The average over the last decade is 791 fires, with 104,000 hectares burned. Human-caused fires this year were a notable problem, comprising 27 per cent of all the outbreaks. Almost all the others were started by lightning.