THUNDER BAY - A forest fire less than three kilometres from the Pikangikum First Nation airport has not grown in size over the last several days and no further evacuations of the community are planned.
More than 1,600 people were forced to evacuate the community located 100 kilometres north of Red Lake due to heavy smoke in the air from the forest fire Red Lake 14. The city of Thunder Bay is hosting more than 250 evacuees, with Sioux Lookout, Cochrane, Kapuskasing, Timmins, and Hearst also welcoming members of the community. There is no word yet on when people will be allowed to return to Pikangikum.
Minister of Energy, Mines, Northern Development and Indigenous Affairs Greg Rickford was in Thunder Bay on Wednesday where he met with evacuees.
“My conversation with the chief on Sunday was to the effect that there wasn’t a desire for any other community members to leave, so they feel safe,” Rickford said. “The 1,600 we have out represent the elders, vulnerable people medically, and small children and their families.”
A state of emergency was declared on May 30 in the community and Canadian Armed Forces personnel were called in to provide transportation support with the use of C-130 Hercules aircraft.
“Frankly, it went very smoothly,” Rickford said. “By Saturday we had reached our target of the 1,600 most vulnerable community members who had been identified and more than 450 residents left of their own capacity. It was a tense time. This is a very serious exercise.”
“I think from the moment when the emergency was declared, setting up the logistics for those planes to come in, was as good as to be expected.”
According to Chris Marchand, fire information officer with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, the 3,835 hectare fire is still listed as not under control but it has not grown in the last few days.
“We are expecting minimal fire growth over the next few days, despite the fact that we received very little rain,” Marchand said. “They seem to be in a slot that hasn’t received a whole lot of precipitation.”
The fire has been assigned its own incident management team focusing specifically on Red Lake 14 and there are 14 four-person fire crews and five sustained attack crews battling the fire.
“The fire hasn’t really advanced toward the community yet,” he said. “They have done a lot of significant work on the north and the east sides of the fire.”
On Wednesday, winds in the area were light and out of the southwest, blowing smoke away from the community. But Rickford warns fires can change quickly and Marchand said it is very dependent on weather conditions in the area.
“I’ve seen fires that are far away that have had that smoke move in,” Rickford said. “Ontario stands ready. We are on high alert to continue an evacuation should the chief and the provincial emergency operations deem it necessary to do.”
