Weagamow Lake members fight large forest fire

Weagamow Lake First Nation members have taken fire fighting into their own hands after a fire near Windigo Lake destroyed a number of cabins and other band members’ property.
The fire, which started in mid-July, had burned over 6,000 hectares when the community sent its members out to fight the blaze.
Paul Johnup, band councilor for Weagamow, said he kept in contact with MNR officials about the fire as it got bigger and bigger, but with little response from the province, the band was forced to send its members to fight the fire themselves.
“Yesterday we mobilized our own people to go there and fight the fire,” said Johnup on Aug 1.
Band councilors flew by plane to check on the fire, as property such as vehicles, trap line cabins and a fish plant building were in the vicinity of the fire.
“They (MNR) said there were other fires that were a priority,” said Johnup. “But last week they put sprinklers at the fish plant.”
Johnup said the sprinklers that Weagamow fire fighters saw by the trailer that had burned down did not seem to do much to prevent the fire from destroying the building.
Jake Williams, band councilor for Weagamow, said he was very frustrated that the MNR did not react to the fire as well as they could have.
“Their use of sprinklers didn’t really help at all,” said Williams.
He said the heat at the base of the fire was very intense.
Ryan Fawcett, fire operations supervisor for Sioux Lookout fire management headquarters, said that the fire burning in Windigo Lake (Sioux Lookout fire #74) was classified as ‘being observed’ by MNR.
“We did a values-assessment. We knew that Windigo had a fish plant that obviously was high value,” said Fawcett.
Fawcett said they decided to try and implement some values protection in the form of sprinklers.
“We did that on the fish plant and some other identified values, and after our third assessment we found that the fire was 370 hectares,” said Fawcett.
According to Fawcett, due to a change in weather the fire grew overnight and overtook some property of Weagamow residents.
“The fire at present is just over 12,000 hectares,” said Fawcett on Aug. 2.