The Outaouais is off to an unusually active start to wildfire season, just months after SOPFEU recorded its busiest fall fire season on record.
Since the beginning of April, as of May 8 SOPFEU had responded to 24 fires in the Outaouais, compared to a historical average of seven. All of them were human-caused. SOPFEU’s Outaouais spokesperson Mélanie Morin said dry conditions and strong winds have helped flames spread quickly across dead grass and forest floors.
“These are surface vegetation fires that are often around the edges of forests [ . . . ] And they can cause a lot of damage to people’s homes and their yards and the neighbours’ yards. That’s what we were getting the past few weeks,” she said.
But Morin noted the fast start to the season is not necessarily cause for concern through the summer. She said most of these fires occurred in the span of a few days, and that according to big picture meteorological forecasts, the overall season is not expected to be exceptionally dry.
“Big picture, it should be a below average summer [ . . . ] and that it should not be exceptionally drier and exceptionally warm,” she said. “That being said, I’ll believe it when I see it in September or October.”
Thorne and Shawville-Clarendon fire chief Lee Laframboise said his departments have been active so far this season. He said of the handful of fires they have seen, one was caused by wind spreading flames from an outdoor fire pit, while another was sparked by a mirror igniting brush in the bush.
Morin said fires like these are common at this time of year.
“The most common causes are either residents around their homes or [ . . . ] people out in the forest, either burning campfires or cigarettes.”
The active spring follows a 2025 season that stretched well into October, when 140 wildfires burned across Quebec — the highest number SOPFEU has ever recorded during the fall months.
“We usually get one or two fires in October, we don’t get hundreds,” Morin said.
In 2025, the MRC Pontiac recorded 28 wildfires, including 13 in October alone, which burned a total of 45.6 hectares. Laframboise said the trend reflects what firefighters are seeing on the ground, as increasingly dry conditions extend the fire season on both ends.
As conditions get drier, Laframboise said local bodies need to do a better job of advising residents when there is a fire ban on. In Thorne, the fire department will be installing outdoor signs so the public can see the fire index and ban status.
He said over the summer months, local fire departments are often fighting the same battles of telling people they cannot burn. Despite local bodies’ best efforts to educate citizens, he said some people still aren’t getting the message.
“You can’t fix stupid,” he said.
Last year’s extended wildfire season also created operational challenges for SOPFEU crews. Morin said many seasonal employees had already finished work for the year when fires continued burning late into the fall, forcing the organization to call workers back.
“It was a logistical challenge to be able to be at full capacity and to fight these fires,” she said.
But Morin said the agency has spent the past several years expanding its firefighting capacity following Quebec’s historic 2023 wildfire season.
“We have increased staffing, tools, airplanes [ . . . ] We went through 2023, which was a really huge season. This has been a long time coming and planning,” she said.
SOPFEU has also launched a new mobile app that allows residents to monitor fire danger levels, see active fires and check on burning restrictions in their area. Morin said the tool is intended to help residents stay informed as wildfire seasons become increasingly unpredictable.
Even with a relatively mild summer forecast, officials warn that just a few dry, windy days can quickly elevate wildfire risk across the region. Residents are asked to pay attention to when fire bans are on, either from their municipalities or from SOPFEU, and abide by those rules.
