Officials are easing one of the fire bans in place in Manitoba.

Manitoba Conservation partially lifted the fire ban Friday at Birds Hill Provincial Park.

Camp fires will be permitted between 8:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. in approved fire pits, said officials. Travel restrictions, however, remain in place on trails at the park.

Officials said Thursday night's rain helped lower the risk of a fire.

Campers who spoke with CTV News Friday said they're pleased.

But the travel and fire restrictions for the rest of eastern Manitoba remain in effect.

With mostly dry weather in the forecast, officials don't know when those bans will be lifted.

Tim Wintonwin is a supervisor at a wilderness store. He said some customers have been crossing into Ontario to camp there because there are no fire restrictions in place.

Others, however, are cancelling rental orders because of travel restrictions in Manitoba.

"Business has slowed down a bit because of it. We see it especially in our rentals and stuff – people cancelling rentals because there is nowhere in Manitoba to access the back country," said Wintonwin.

Officials sympathize but said they can't take any chances.

"If we don't protect our outdoors and we do get a large forest fire - that takes up (30,000) or 40,000 hectares. That's not unheard of," said Duane Feeley from Manitoba Conservation.

The province put fire bans into effect for many parts of eastern Manitoba at the start of August. The province said 27 fines and 22 warnings have been handed out so far for people disobeying the bans.

In Winnipeg, meanwhile, officials put into effect a temporary ban on open-air burn permits Aug. 19 in order to prevent the spread of accidental fires.

In a media release, the city said "dry conditions may worsen which will substantially increase the danger of wild land grass and brush fires."

Officials said the ban on open-air burn permits will be lifted as soon as conditions improve.

The ban does not affect the use of approved residential fire pits, said city officials.

 - with a report from CTV's Jeff Keele


- more information from the province is available online at http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/fire/Prevention/prevention.html