Another northwestern Ontario First Nation is being evacuated, as a major wildfire burns nearby.
An evacuation order for Sandy Lake First Nation was issued on Saturday as Red Lake 12 burned less than two kilometres away from the remote Oji-Cree community.
The fire was initially reported on May 28. In an email to CBC News on Sunday, Chris Marchand of Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services said the fire “experienced significant growth on June 6 and 7,” and is now more than 156,000 hectares in size.
“We’re pulling together,” Sandy Lake Chief Delores Kakegamic told CBC News on Sunday. “It’s a lot of work.”
“We have teams doing … everything from security to the rangers helping at the airport,” she said. “Everybody’s doing their part.”
In an update issued Sunday, the community said it was under a phase one evacuation, focusing on its most vulnerable residents and their families.
Nine flights left the community on Sunday, and more than 1,000 people have left the community, not including those who made personal arrangements to leave.
The next step could be to continue with older children and their families, although many have left, the update says. Another update is expected on Monday.
Thunder Bay set up as evacuation hub
The City of Thunder Bay, meanwhile, won’t be hosting any evacuees, but is acting as an evacuation hub, Deputy Fire Chief Dave Tarini said.
That means, he said, while Thunder Bay won’t be hosting any Sandy Lake members long-term, some are staying in the city briefly.
“Most of the time … there’s a a private company that’s been contracted by the provincial government to run the transportation hub, and that’s done right out the (Thunder Bay International Airport), so they are accommodated and taken care of while they’re waiting in transit,” he said.
“Otherwise, we will look to some of our area hotels in order to find space and capacity to house folks overnight, depending on how dire the situation gets.”
“If it is an emergency, a dire emergency as they said, we could look at putting them in more of a congregate setting just to get them out of the community away from the immediate danger, and that would involve trying to free up space at community centres, arenas, wherever we can safely house folks,” Tarini said.
“We haven’t gotten to that point yet. Currently between the Thunder Bay airport and a couple of the local hotels, we’re able to to manage the the volume.”
On the weekend, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that the Canadian Armed Forces would assist in evacuating Sandy Lake.
Crew members caught in the fire
Speaking at the Thunder Bay airport after arriving in the city, Sandy Lake member Troy Kakepetum said he and his family were flown out of the community on Sunday.
“It was really smoky there, scary,” he said. “This is my first time being involved in an evacuation.”
Kakepetum said he and his family were initially transported to Red Lake, then to Thunder Bay. They were then scheduled to be flown to Ottawa.
“I took one of my co-workers to his camp, he stays at the camp, at the Valard camp,” Kakepetum said. “We went to go pick up his stuff, and shortly after, the fire came there, and some of the crew members, they were caught.”
“They hid themselves in a sea can.”
Kirk Hinrichs was one of the workers who was caught in the fire.
“I woke up in early in the morning, I looked up and all I see is a big cloud of smoke, and looked at the radar,” he told CBC News on Sunday. “Fifteen miles away, it said.”
“Three hours later, the fire is right there, right out the door. The wind was picking up really bad, and all of a sudden there is like 100-foot flames.”
He said it was very difficult to see because of the thick smoke.
“There was a call for all of us to go into the containers, which I thought was a really silly idea, but we did end up going in a container,” he said. “It was becoming too much and the container caught fire, so we all had to leave there.”
The crew ended up heading into one of the campers.
“Helicopters couldn’t reach us because there’s low visibility,” Hinrichs said. “So we basically just had to wait for the fire to burn and drive out.”
“We were just mostly waiting for the fire on the road to to go away,” he said. “We got an open window to get out of there, so we took it.”
Nineteen construction workers survived a fast-moving wildfire in northwestern Ontario by huddling inside a shipping container near Sandy Lake First Nation, which is now under evacuation order.
The crew works for Sigfusson Northern. The company issued a media release on Sunday saying all 14 members of its crew — as well as four other workers employed by other organizations working near Sandy Lake — are safe.
“At the time work began in Sandy Lake First Nation on Saturday, June 7, there was no evacuation order in place,” the media release states. “Out of an abundance of caution, we initiated aircraft evacuation plans early that morning.”
“Unfortunately, those efforts had to be paused when the runway became inaccessible due to fire activity. Thankfully, as weather conditions improved later in the day, our aviation team was able to safely reach and airlift our workers and our partner organization’s crew to safety.”
The company said it’s providing access to counselling and wellness services to those affected by the incident.
Fire suppression, other evacuations continue
In his email, Marchand said aerial suppression of Red Lake 12 will continue as smoke conditions allow, with helicopters and 11 FireRanger crews working to suppress the fire and protect structures.
Deer Lake First Nation evacuated its members to Toronto last week due to the Red Lake 12 fire, and Marchand said Keewaywin First Nation is expected to begin an evacuation this week. North Spirit Lake First Nation also declared a state of emergency on Sunday and called for a complete community evacuation.
Webequie First Nation has evacuated its most vulnerable members to Barrie due to the Nipigon 5 fire, which is burning just south of the community. As of Monday morning, the fire was about 8,880 hectares in size, and not under control.
“Wet weather across the region is expected to continue over the next several days, which should limit fire behaviour to varying degrees and assist our efforts,” Marchand wrote.
Meanwhile, members of Wabaseemoong Independent Nations, who have been staying in Niagara Falls since mid-May due to an evacuation order, have been cleared to return home, the community posted in an update Friday.
