High winds were expected to make work difficult on Saturday for crews charged with battling dozens of fires burning throughout Quebec.
About 51 fires are burning across the province, according to fire information officer Melanie Morin, and nine of those are considered out of control.
While that is an improvement over the 16 that were out of control on Friday, high winds will likely challenge firefighters to make headway on the others, Morin said.
"Today it really will be the wind," Morin told CTV News Channel Saturday morning in a telephone interview from Maniwaki, Que.
"Mother Nature has a great role in fire activity. Tomorrow we are supposed to get lighter winds and by Monday hopefully some precipitation. So if we get through today then after that we should be getting some help from Mother Nature."
Environment Canada forecasts for the region call for winds between 20 and 30 kilometres an hour both Saturday and Sunday.
Fires are not unusual at this time of year for Quebec, according to Morin, but this year fires have spread easily due to unusually warm and windy conditions. Officials believe many of the fires were started by lightning.
More than 330 fires have burned more than 69,000 hectares, Morin said, the majority in the last week alone.
The hardest-hit area is Haute-Mauricie, with "seven or eight out-of-control fires in that one region," she said.
The fires have forced more than 2,400 people to leave their homes. Four communities in Haute-Mauricie have been evacuated, including Wemotaci, a reserve north of Trois-Rivieres. Residents there have been relocated to La Tuque, where they will be housed in a local school.
About 1,000 people in the town of Manawan, and about 100 people in Obedjiwan, have also been ordered out of their homes.
Manitoba and New Brunswick, as well as the states of Maine and Massachusetts, have sent fire crews and equipment to help tackle the fires. Morin said there are about 1,000 crew and firefighters on the ground.
With files from The Canadian Press
