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New Brunswick's tinder-dry forests and hot weather prompted the Department of Natural Resources to issue a provincewide ban Tuesday on all open fires.

Sandy McKinnon, duty officer at the Provincial Fire Centre in Fredericton, said firefighters are on high alert.

"We are at a high hazard all over the province," he said.

"We are manning up offices. We are increasing our aerial patrols. Any open burning has been restricted."

The fire centre has three patrol aircraft operating out of Fredericton and Miramichi.

So far, 2008 has been a good year for forest fires.

"There are no active fires at this time," said McKinnon. "Our numbers are way down this year."

To date, there have been 114 forest fires in New Brunswick that consumed 92 hectares.

Last year by this time, there were 230 fires that burned 540 hectares.

"We had a cold start to this spring," said McKinnon. "This is our first good warm stretch."

The men and women who fight forest fires also have a new high-tech tool in their arsenal.

"This is our first year with satellite tracking of aircraft," said McKinnon. "Before we managed things by radio."

The satellite tracking system gives the fire centre a visual read out on every spotter and tanker aircraft in the fleet.

"We can pick the best plane to go to the right place," said McKinnon. "It's helping us out quite a bit."

The Department of Natural Resources is reporting fires to the public differently this year.

McKinnon said the public can go online at www.gnb.ca and click on "fire watch" to check out individual fires.

"As fires occur we post them publicly now," he said.

The website lists each fire and how much manpower and equipment is fighting each fire. There's also a link to Google Earth so people can see a satellite image of the fire's location, he said.

One thing the department doesn't do any more is close the woods.

The province used to order the public to stay out of the woods when the forest fire index was extremely high in order to prevent accidental fires.

"It has never been something we have been able to enforce very consistently," said McKinnon.

There are four categories of fires in New Brunswick rated by size: campfires no more than three-metres wide and two-metres high, larger woodpiles such as clearing from a house lot; blueberry fields; and much larger burns, which require special permits from DNR.

McKinnon said the province gets only one or two requests for category four burns a year.

New Brunswick has an assistance agreement with Nova Scotia so the two provinces can help each other fight forest fires.