Officials with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry say they've had some recent success in battling the “Parry Sound 33” fire that is burning just a few kilometreswest of Highway 69 in the French River-Key River area.  It’s now approaching 9-thousand hectares in size, and winds are posing a problem as smoke is blowing into areas popular with cottagers and campers, and it has people and businesses in the area are still worried.

"The smell surprised me, when I was driving in, we came from up North were driving down back down south, and when I got close enough, the smell just really surprised me how much stronger it was than when I went up yesterday morning even, and uh it's just really disconcerting for the people who live around here, cause they're going to be breathing this twenty four seven, so it's a shame." said Judy Wiseman, who was driving through and had stopped at the French river Trading Post.

Frank Romano is renting a cottage in the French River area.

"We've been coming up for about ten years now, and coming up this year was very smoky, we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. We had a clear day until about seven o’clock last night and then the smoke rolled in real quick. You couldn't even see the shore line over here."  Said Romano.

Ghaffar Khan has been the owner of the Key River Marina for 18 years now and says he has never witnessed anything like what he's seen in the summer of 2018.

"All of a sudden the tourist activity dropped to almost zero. A lot of people got scared with this situation and you know, this tourist area the peoples living depends on the tourist and tourists are scared away, there is a big concern." said Khan.

As the effort to control the blaze continues MNRF officials say approximately 560 firefighters from out of province are on hand to help.   

"We have made good efforts and good containment success on the south and western side of that fire uh so we are focusing especially where the C-N line is and that is also the area where it would impact the highway and further the communities. We are anticipating some conditions today, with the westerly south westerly wind that could affect visibility on the highway."  said MNRF Fire Information Officer, Shayne McCool.

The potential for drifting smoke has prompted several air quality alerts today from Environment Canada for a strip that runs from Blind river to Manitoulin Island and Killarney and across to West Nipissing and North Bay.