Deer Lake, Webequie First Nations declare state of emergency over nearby wildfires

Deer Lake First Nation and Webequie First Nation each declared a state of emergency on Friday, as forest fires continue to pose a danger to communities.

Deer Lake Band Council said it's dealing with and responding to "a massive, raging forest fire " that has quickly grown to 9,600 hectares.

The state of emergency declaration noted that the forest fire near Deer Lake "has created a clear and present danger, with seriously poor air quality and provides a real risk to life and property and a true threat of burning community homes and buildings."

Meanwhile, another fire roughly 450 kilometres east has forced the Webequie First Nation to start evacuation vulnerable people. Chief Cornelius Wabasse said the decision to declare a state of emergency "has been made in the interest of protecting public health and safety."

400 people being transported to Barrie, Ont.

A Friday news release from the Band Council said "400 individuals are expected to be transported to Barrie, Ont., within the next day or so."

"We will continue to monitor the fire to determine if further evacuation is needed and will continue ongoing communications with residents," Wabasse said.

Wabasse noted that the wildfire — NIP005 — "continues to burn near the community," adding that "with unpredictable weather and wind patterns, there is an increasing risk of dangerous smoke exposure and possible encroachment of the fire zone."

Key actions under the state of emergency declaration include:

• Activation of emergency response protocols.
• Initiation of Phase 1 evacuation (for elders, children, chronically ill, special needs and mobility-impaired individuals).
• Ongoing co-ordination with the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre (PEOC), Emergency Management Ontario (EMO), Indigenous Services Canada (ISC), and health authorities.

All community members are urged to remain indoors as much as possible, limit outdoor activities, and monitor for further instructions through official Webquie communication channels, the declaration reads.

Deer Lake plans complete community evacuation

Deer Lake, which began an evacuation this week, said it's now "planning a complete community evacuation" due to a fire burning in and around the community.

As of Friday morning, the fire, known as Red Lake 12, was just over 7,100 hectares in size and not under control.

"It was about 200 feet from our local band office," Deer Lake Chief Leonard Mamakeesick told CBC News on Friday. "It's surrounded the airport already."

Mamakeesick said the fire worsened overnight due to shifting winds. He said he was working on getting a state of emergency declared.

While Deer Lake was already in the process of evacuating vulnerable community members, Mamakeesick said there are still more than 1,000 people in the community. They'll be taken to Toronto as part of the overall evacuation of the community.

Ontario FireRangers, meanwhile, are working on protecting the community, he said, and have set up sprinklers to protect structures there.

Red Lake 12 is one of a few fires of note burning in the region this week, the provincial Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services (AFFES) said.

Nipigon 5 has grown to about 2,000 hectares, and is not under control. The fire is burning just south of Webequie First Nation, which has issued a pre-evacuation alert.  

Kenora 20 is about 34,000 hecatres and not under control. AFFES said crews are making "steady progress" on the fire, which has spread into Manitoba. The fire is burning northwest of Kenora.

Kenora 14, meanwhile, is being held at about 1,600 hectares. That fire is located south of Kenora.

Much of the northwest remains under a restricted fire zone due to the forest fire hazard. No open burning is permitted.

'The smoke is really bad': Deer Lake resident

Deer Lake resident David Meekis spoke with CBC News on Thursday about the environmental conditions resulting from the fire. 

"The smoke is really bad … you can't even, like, stand around outside that long due to the smoke, you inhale it and it hurts your lungs really bad," Meekis said. "It's pretty hectic here right now."

Meekis said he's standing by to get on a list as the authorities carry out an evacuation of the community. 

"They're evacuating people to Toronto … they got together and started the evacuation list for people, like, kids first and elders first," he said.

"They're just going by the ages and people that can't really do much, like people that are on dialysis, people that are on medical — they're the ones that are getting picked first. Healthy people like me, they're waiting out, waiting for the other ones to go first."

Right now it's scary.- David Meekis, Deer Lake resident

According to Meekis, people have been advised that they could be away from the community "three to four weeks," adding that he has mixed feelings about leaving.

"I don't feel like leaving my dogs. I got two Huskies," he said.

Meekis said the authorities are "going to figure something out how to feed them and look after the animals when you leave. "

"Right now it's scary. We're kind of scared because the fire is on both sides of us and it's spreading fast and the wind's picking up too," Meekis said on Thursday.

Special air quality statements in effect

Environment Canada has also issued special air quality statements due to wildfire smoke for parts of the northwest, including:

• Thunder Bay.
• Atikokan.
• Ear Falls.
• Dryden.
• Kenora.
• Ighace.
• Fort Frances.
• Red Lake.
• Sioux Lookout.

Wildfire smoke, the statements reads, is expected to affect the region throughout the day Friday, and possibly in to Saturday for some areas.

Red Lake Mayor Fred Mota said the municipality is monitoring fire activity in the region, and remains in constant contact with the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR).

"We're still remaining under a restricted fire zone in our area, obviously for good reason due to the dry forest conditions," Mota said. "Lots of smoke in the area. We're fortunate in our radius that there's no close fires at this time."

Forest fires caused the evacuation of Red Lake in 2020, and the municipality was also nearly evacuated due to fire activity in 2021.

"We want to take all the precautions necessary," Mota said. "When I met with the MNR earlier in the fire season, some of the concern was the dryness."

"We had quite a bit of snow, but due to all of the warm weather that we received, that snow melted off very quickly and didn't saturate into the ground. And of course, we haven't had a lot of precipitation."