Pimicikamak Cree Nation lifting evacuation order, community members to start going home Monday

Residents of Pimicikamak Cree Nation can start heading home on Monday, more than three weeks after a nearby wildfire forced the First Nation to start precautionary evacuations for its most vulnerable citizens. 

On Sunday afternoon, Chief David Monias announced in a statement posted to Facebook that the First Nation, located about 530 kilometres north of Winnipeg, was lifting its evacuation order. 

The community is still under a state of emergency. The wildfire nearest to the First Nation is still burning and there is still smoke, Monias said. According to provincial wildfire data, that fire is about 2,300 hectares in size and is now being held as of Saturday. 

Another wildfire south of Pimicikamak is more than 64,000 hectares in size and it is still out of control, according to the province. 

Monias said it may take a few weeks until the fires have fully burned out, but he was hopeful that heavy rain and hail in the area on Sunday will help firefighters on the ground. 

No structures have been damaged by the wildfires, Monias said.

Evacuees who are able to drive back, can start heading home, and the First Nation has been setting up accounts with gas stations along multiple routes back to the community. 

About 500 community members are expected to return on Monday, he said. 

"I was excited to tell them. I couldn't wait to tell them," Monias told CBC News on Sunday.

Officials assessed wildfire risks and air quality to ensure it was safe to return and that enough resources, like food and gas, would be available when people arrive. 

Monias said the approximately 7,800 people that live in the First Nation community will return home in a phased re-entry. 

Officials are working to arrange buses and flights for thousands of evacuees that have sheltered across two provinces, from Thompson to Winnipeg to Niagara Falls, Ont. 

Vulnerable residents, including the elderly and people with respiratory issues, who left Pimicikamak in priority evacuations, will be the last to return home. 

Those vulnerable evacuees may be able to come home by the end of the week, depending on air quality both inside and outside the homes, he said.

"As much as we like Winnipeg, it's not our home," said Monias. 

"Everybody's looking forward to going home and being together."