Skip to content

Nearly half of evacuees heading home

First Nation evacuees in Thunder Bay continue to wait for their turn to head home, as the Province is working on transporting over 3,000 evacuated residents back to their communities.

First Nation evacuees in Thunder Bay continue to wait for their turn to head home, as the Province is working on transporting over 3,000 evacuated residents back to their communities.

]The province announced that another 571 residents will be brought home on Friday. 140 residents will be transported from an evacuation centre in Kapuskasing to Cat Lake First Nation, with 431 residents being brought back to Sandy Lake from Wawa, Moosonee, Sioux Lookout and Greenstone.

That brings the total number of returned residents to about 1,450, nearly half the total people evacuated.

Thunder Bay Fire and Rescue Deputy Fire Chief Greg Hankkio said the original date for the Sandy Lake evacuees staying in Thunder Bay was Sunday, but is now scheduled for either Monday or Tuesday. With so many evacuees returning home, Thunder Bay's date was changed to coincide with the province's plan.

Hankkio said Sandy Lake First Nation residents in Thunder Bay are stage one evacuees, and will be the last of their community to return home. Talks are currently underway to better organize evacuees in case the forest fire situation suddenly changes and causes another evacuation.





push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks