Evacuees moved out of one hotel, placed in another

Evacuees who are in Thunder Bay after fleeing their homes in northern communities will be moving on, but will not be going home. 

About 300 evacuees were staying at the Victoria Inn due to forest fires threatening their communities. Those evacuated people on Thursday were moving into the Travelodge Airlane as the HOG rally rolls into town.

While there are reports of people going home, the people staying in Thunder Bay are considered phase one evacuees. Because they are the most vulnerable to smoke, they were the first ones out and will likely be the last ones to return.

Thunder Bay Fire and Rescue’s Brian Berringer said the word so far is that those people won’t return home until at least Sunday or even later next week.

"They’ll probably be the last to go back," Berringer said Thursday morning while coordinating the effort to move people to their new hotel.

"The weather conditions could change very quickly as well up north and skew the whole thing again."

Despite being far from home, Berringer said everyone is in good spirits as the city tries to find activities for children and elders.

"Everybody’s pretty happy.”

Officials with the MNR said Thursday that the current hectares burned is the third highest ever consumed by forest fires in a season for the province since 1917.

While the fire ban has been lifted and no new fires were reported for the region on Wednesday, officials are urging extreme caution when having an outdoor fire.