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Heading home: More than 600 Sandy Lake evacuees expected home by Monday

Evacuees from Sandy Lake are heading home. More than 600 people from the First Nation community, 600 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay, were evacuated last week due to smoke from forest fires.
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FILE PHOTO (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)

Evacuees from Sandy Lake are heading home.

More than 600 people from the First Nation community, 600 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay, were evacuated last week due to smoke from forest fires. The Travelodge and Victoria Inn have been hosting 570 people while Fort Frances hosted another 89.

“Over the past few days they’ve had heavy amounts of precipitation up there and the wind has changed direction and the smoke is no longer a factor,” Thunder Bay Fire and Rescue’s Dennis Brescacin said Saturday afternoon.

As a result, the people will be returning to their community starting Sunday. If all goes according to plan, everyone should be back home by Monday Brescacin said.

“We’re in the process of scheduling flights and making arrangements to move them back over the next two days,” he said.
There are currently 61 fires burning 82, 830 hectares in the northwest region.
 





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