With Northwest Ontario now under a state of emergency issued by the province, Calls for more support to keep community members safe as nearly 80 forest fires continue to burn in the area.
As of Wednesday, three First Nations and a community in the northwest had begun partial evacuations, including Deer Lake, where vulnerable populations – including the elderly and children – have since left the community.
According to David Meekis, the band’s councilor, the process was challenging.
On Tuesday, Meekis said the First Nation had been told that two CC-130 Hercules military transport planes were coming into the community, so the evacuation team tried to find 140 residents in time and transport them to the airport. But after a couple of hours of waiting at the local school gym, only one of the planes arrived.
“Then we have to tell our community, like half of them, 70 people, that they are no longer going,” said Meekis. “You weren’t very happy.”
At other times, the smoke blanket was too thick for planes to land safely, Meekis added.
He told CBC News that these are examples of how quickly evacuation plans and logistics change as teams ensure the safe transportation and housing of people in communities across the province.
By Wednesday afternoon, more than 500 people had flown out of Deer Lake First Nation – either to Thunder Bay, Cochrane or Cornwall – and fewer than 100 people from the first phase of evacuation remained in the First Nation.
Meekis said First Nation leadership will see what will happen to the major forest fire that burns about 30 kilometers west of Deer Lake before deciding whether to call for a full evacuation.
Smoke from a series of forest fires in northwestern Ontario made the skies dark orange across the region, including Pikangikum First Nation. (Supplied by Amanda Sainnawap)
Limited resources in support of the wider evacuation in Pikangikum First Nation were also of paramount importance to the community leadership. As Chief Dean Owen said in a written statement, “With so many communities evacuated as a result of the fires, we are all competing for limited resources and space.”
On Wednesday, the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) issued an emergency ordinance that allowed the government to “take special measures to ensure the safety of people and the protection of critical property.”
The ministry’s Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services Agency (AFFES) said the emergency order allows the province to take measures such as travel or access restrictions within an identified area.
“Provincial Lungs Go In Flames”
About 100 kilometers from Pikangikum, Fred Mota, Mayor of Red Lake, has declared a state of emergency in his own community. He said that as the fire situation evolves, the province “fully supports” the local efforts in this community.
Mota has urged local residents to prepare for a possible evacuation, adding that the two worrying fires that burn about 20 kilometers from the community are in danger of combining and creating a larger fire.
“Just to put this into perspective, the rate of fire when I last met the local MNRF, they suggest this fire burns 40 meters every minute. So it’s very fast, it’s very dry out there, and it could be a very long road for the Red Lake community and the surrounding area, “he said in an interview with CBC News.
The past few days have been stressful for Catherine Reilly, a new resident of the Red Lake area, arranging potential evacuation plans, especially when it comes to planning housing for her and her pets.
Reilly said that as a resident of the northwest, she feels like the area has been forgotten, especially when it comes to resources and the attention of federal and provincial governments devoted to forest fires.
“The fact that it’s happening up here is that the provincial lungs are going up in flames and nobody cares.”
Reilly reiterated the concerns expressed by First Nations leaders in the region earlier this week, criticizing the urgency and willingness of the government to respond to the forest fire “crisis”.
NDP MPP Sol Mamakwa on Wednesday also called on Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford to “hurry” aid to families left behind to evacuate their communities.
“Doug Ford should have taken action a long time ago, knowing that forest fires would rage in northwestern Ontario during the fire season,” Mamakwa said in a statement. “His unwillingness has put people at risk and left unsupported. He now needs to act quickly, provide emergency resources and coordinate the evacuation of families from multiple communities.”
NDP MPP Sol Mamakwa, who represents the Ontario Riding of Kiiwetinoong, says evacuating the northern First Nations could be detrimental if the evacuees do not get the proper support. (Supplied by Sol Mamakwa)
The MPP, which represents the northern part of Kiiwetinoong, emphasized the importance of the government now providing all aircraft and providing more accommodation to the evacuees immediately.
In a statement to CBC regarding concerns about insufficient resources available for community evacuation, a spokesman for the attorney general’s department said critical support and services are being provided by the hosting communities, reimbursed by Ottawa.
“Consistent with its role in coordinating provincial resources in an emergency response and service funding arrangement with the federal government, the province actively plans potential forest fire risk evacuations annually,” said Brent Ross. “This planning was done in collaboration with local, state, and First Nation partners.”
Ross said the province continues to work to identify additional communities to accommodate more evacuees if needed.
