While North Bay 72 remains an out-of-control forest fire in the Lady Evelyn cluster, firefighters are making headway with the wildfires in the Temagami cluster.
All the fires in that cluster are either being held or under control.
North Bay 72 remains at more than 27,500 hectares large and is being fought by 265 firefighters and 12 helicopters.
The fire is one of several burning in Lady Evelyn.
Meanwhile the fires in the River Valley cluster are being taken down one by one.
Firefighters’ efforts are preventing the fires from spreading and they are also putting out hot spots.
One of the larger fires in this cluster remains North Bay 62 at 2,500 hectares at Hand Lake.
The other fire is North Bay 42 at 350 hectares at Red Cedar Lake.
Firefighters are holding both fires and don’t expect them to spread.
The River Valley cluster has received about 65 mm of rain over the past three days which has helped crews extinguish the hot spots.
There are now 50 fires burning in the northeast and 16 of them remain out of control.
Because of the proximity of the various fires and wind conditions, some communities like North Bay saw smoke drift in resulting in the smell of burning wood on Thursday for a time.
Wednesday evening also saw a lot of smoke in various communities in West Nipissing.
The community held its first ever Butterfly Release on Wednesday at Minnehaha Bay and the scene was fairly smoky at times.
The North Bay Waterfront was also partially shrouded in smoke which created photographic conditions for an interesting sunset.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry continues to keep most of Northeastern Ontario under a Restricted Fire Zone.