Forest Fires

The thousands of people in Nishnawbe Aski Nation communities who were evacuated from their homes this summer due to raging forest fires makes this Wawatay’s third top news story of 2011.
As increasing numbers of Nishnawbe Aski Nation members were evacuated from their communities due to the forest fires, NAN Grand Chief Stan Beardy called for a state of emergency.
Keewaywin was evacuated July 17-18 due to a threat from Red Lake Fire Number 82, located about 10 kilometres southwest of the community of about 500 on-reserve band members.
One hundred and ninety- seven community members were sent to Greenstone July 17 in a stage one evacuation of Elders, people with health issues and young children. Another 150 were evacuated July 18 to Greenstone. The rest of the community was evacuated later that day.
Four other Nishnawbe Aski Nation communities were evacuated as of July 19 due to smoky conditions from forest fires across northwestern Ontario.
About 750 Elders, people with health issues and young children were evacuated from Sandy Lake July 18, about 160 from North Spirit Lake July 18, about 281 from Eabametoong July 17 and about 250 from Cat Lake July 14-15. About 230 community members in Kingfisher were on standby July 19.
In addition to their July 17 phase-one evacuation, Eabametoong Chief Harry Papah said his community was considering a phase two evacuation of the about 1,000 remaining community members due to thick smoke from forest fires to the west of the community.
NAN put out a call July 19 to the cities and municipalities in northwestern Ontario to continue to assist by providing emergency shelters for up to 5,000 community members who could be forced to flee their homes that week.
Other communities faced similar forest fire ordeals this summer. Deer Lake was evacuated July 7 due to smoke conditions, with evacuees returning home July 13-15.
Mishkeegogamang was evacuated June 22 due to a nearby forest fire.
Evacuees began returning home July 26, starting with Mishkeegogamang and Eabametoong. As of Aug. 1, about 2,582 evacuees had returned to their communities. All evacuees were back home by Aug. 3.