Evacuation begins

Another area community is facing an evacuation order because of nearby forest fires.

Officials with Emergency Management Ontario confirmed they are working with First Nation leadership, provincial ministries and the Canadian Forces to help evacuate residents of Deer Lake.

A forest fire, about 350 hectares in size, is burning about 3.5 kilometres away from the remote community and is sending smoke into the area.

"We're collaborating very closely with our First Nations and federal partners to ensure the safety of Deer Lake residents,” said Jim Bradley, Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services. “This evacuation will help take the most vulnerable members of the community out of harm’s way."

Provincial and federal agencies are now working with Deer Lake Band Council to co-ordinate the evacuation of Deer Lake residents whose health is most at risk due to the smoke, including the elderly, young children and people with respiratory problems.

About 480 people are expected to be immediately airlifted by the Canadian Forces to Greenstone.

Meanwhile, Ministry of Natural Resources firefighters continue to battle the blaze with water bombers and ground crews.

“They are using the suppression tactics they need to use – setting up sprinkler systems, laying hose, bombing with the airplanes on the fire to slow it down, let the crews catch up,” said Ryan Moffatt, fire operations technician with the MNR. “Try to steer this fire and slow it down so there is no concern for the community, except for this smoke.”

While still under investigation, Moffatt said the MNR believes the fire was caused by lightning.

“The bulk of our fires across the north right now have been caused by lightning,” he said. “We had a lot of lightning come through over the last three days and without exception, the 78 starts we’ve had in the last four days, 18 of them being last night, were all caused by lightning.”

In addition to situation in Deer Lake, Moffatt said Sandy Lake and North Spirit Lake communities are also on alert. He added the will be monitoring and reassessing the Deer Lake fire to see if the next phase of evacuation is necessary.

“Our focus right now is on the north,” he said. “Most of our fires, because of the lightning that has gone through, are in the north.”