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Happy Sunday, Thunder Bay! The smoke has lifted and the weekend is warm — a fine day to get back outside. In today's issue: the wildfire picture is finally easing as the city steps back to “enhanced monitoring,” the search for an escaped inmate ends in an arrest, a volunteer vet team rescues two dozen pets from the fire zone, and striking new steel “pike” sculptures land in the north core. Plus your week-ahead events and today's forecast. ☀️
In this Harbour Beat Issue…
🔥 Wildfires ease as the city steps back to “enhanced monitoring”
🚔 Escaped inmate located and arrested
🐾 A volunteer vet team rescues 25 pets from the fire zone
🎨 Striking new “pike” sculptures land in the north core
Trivia: Which is the only planet in our solar system that rotates on its side, tilted at about 98 degrees? (Answer at the bottom!)
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Your week-ahead guide to Thunder Bay. ✅ The smoke has eased and the weekend is warm — a great stretch to get back outside. (Regional fires are still burning, so a wind shift could still change an outdoor plan.)
Sunday, July 26
JUL 26 · Bay & Algoma Buskers Festival (Day 2) — 12–5 p.m. · 📍 Bay & Algoma neighbourhood (outdoor) · Free. The street festival's final afternoon of world-class buskers, food and local crafters · 📅 Add to Calendar
JUL 26 · Garden Tour 2026 — 10 a.m.–4 p.m. · 📍 Citywide (Thunder Bay Art Gallery) · A self-guided tour of lovingly grown local gardens — a great family outing · 📅 Add to Calendar
JUL 26 · Border Cats vs. Eau Claire Express — 5:05 p.m. · 📍 Port Arthur Stadium · Northwoods League baseball, back home after a hot road trip · 📅 Add to Calendar
Monday, July 27
JUL 27 · Dawson Diner Monday Night Cruise-In — 6:30–8 p.m. · 📍 Dawson Diner, 1889 Dawson Rd · Classic cars, chrome and a BBQ to kick off the week (weather permitting) · 📅 Add to Calendar
Tuesday, July 28
JUL 28 · Tai Chi in the Park — 7–8 p.m. · 📍 Marina Park (outdoor) · Free · A gentle, all-welcome session on the Tai Chi pad by the water · 📅 Add to Calendar
Wednesday, July 29
JUL 29 · Live on the Waterfront — 6–9 p.m. · 📍 Marina Park (outdoor) · Free · A pop, soul & R&B night headlined by Thunder Bay's own Preston Pablo, with Avery Raquel and Dirty Blonde · 📅 Add to Calendar
Thursday, July 30
JUL 30 · MacGillivray Pipe Band — Hillcrest Park Concerts — 7:30 p.m. · 📍 Hillcrest Park (outdoor) · Free · Thunder Bay's community pipe-and-drum band (since 1917) plays overlooking the harbour · 📅 Add to Calendar
JUL 30 · Border Cats vs. Duluth Huskies — 6:35 p.m. · 📍 Port Arthur Stadium · The Huskies visit to close out July · 📅 Add to Calendar
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✅ NO ACTIVE WEATHER ALERTS
Environment Canada has no alerts posted for Thunder Bay. Air quality is in the normal range — though a little wildfire smoke could still drift back on a wind shift, so sensitive groups can keep an eye on it.
🌤️ Sunday, July 26 — Thunder Bay
25°C
Humidex 30 · Overnight low 14°C · Winds light
Sun & cloud, 40% chance of showers · afternoon thunderstorm risk · UV 8 (very high)
A warm, unsettled Sunday. Expect a mix of sun and cloud with a 40% chance of showers and a risk of an afternoon thunderstorm; any morning fog patches should burn off early. Look for a high near 25°C (Humidex 30), light winds, and a very high UV index of 8 — sunscreen weather whenever the sun breaks through. After weeks of haze, a welcome bonus: no air-quality alert in effect. Similar into Monday, with a high near 24°C. Full forecast and any new alerts at Environment Canada.
Wildfires ease as the city steps back to “enhanced monitoring”
The wildfire picture across the northwest is finally starting to turn. Ontario Forest Fires counted 131 active fires on Saturday, with the region's danger rating easing to mostly low-to-moderate. The massive Thunder Bay 36 fire still burns out of control at more than 315,000 hectares, and roughly 2,835 evacuees remain in host communities — but the City of Thunder Bay has stepped back from active emergency co-ordination to “enhanced monitoring,” calling conditions “serious but stable” with no new evacuations anticipated. Out-of-province crews and airtankers from Alberta are now helping on the lines.
Escaped inmate located and arrested
The search that had Thunder Bay's south end on alert is over. Police say Anthony Patrick Frizzell, 65, was arrested around 1:30 a.m. Saturday, a day after he escaped custody at the Thunder Bay Correctional Centre. During the search, city police and the OPP warned motorists not to pick up hitchhikers in the south end and along Highway 61. The OPP assisted with the investigation; no further details have been released.
A volunteer vet team rescues 25 pets from the fire zone
A volunteer veterinary team is doing double duty in the fire zone. Vets Around the Corner, running a pop-up field hospital at Grandview Arena, has already treated more than 100 animals — and made two trips to Whitesand First Nation and Armstrong to rescue pets left behind during evacuations, bringing back about 25 animals by ambulance and rescue flight. “Pet owners don't want to leave their homes until they know their animals are going to be cared for,” one vet said. The donation-based non-profit, which can burn through $10,000 in supplies a day, plans to stay at least another week.
New “pike” sculptures land in the north core
There's something new to see downtown. The city has installed Esox (Ginoozheg) — five sleek steel pike sculptures by Halifax artist Simon Lacey — in the Mall Street Plaza between Red River Road and Park Street, their baffled steel designed to “flash in the sunlight” like a fish turning in the Kaministiquia River. It's the second of three works in the North Core Streetscape project, a $500,000 investment, with a third piece, All Together, due later this year. “Public art transforms spaces into a destination,” said the city's Laurie Abthorpe.
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Trivia answer: Uranus. It's the only planet that rotates on its side — tilted about 98 degrees — so it essentially rolls around the Sun like a ball. That extreme tilt gives each pole roughly 42 years of continuous daylight followed by 42 years of darkness.