Wildfire within 1 kilometre of Deer Lake First Nation prompts call for community evacuation

Water bombers and bird dog aircraft are responding to a wildfire near Deer Lake First Nation in northwestern Ontario, which has prompted leadership to request a community evacuation.

The fire, known as Red Lake 12, is within one kilometre of Deer Lake's airport, fire information officer Chris Marchand told CBC News.

"The fire has quickly grown in size to 100 hectares and community officials are guiding residents to a safe zone near the bay close to the nursing station," Ontario's Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services (AFFES) posted on Facebook Wednesday evening.

About 1,100 people live in Deer Lake, an Oji-Cree community in Treaty 5 located about 180 kilometres north of Red Lake. It is only accessible by air or winter road.

Shortly before 5:30 p.m. CST, southwest winds were pushing the flames away from the community, Marchand said, though he noted the situation was quickly evolving.

West of Deer Lake, Manitoba has declared a provincewide state of emergency as wildfires are rapidly spreading across the region. 

"We have not at all had enough moisture to really get us out of these escalating fire conditions," said Marchand. "This ongoing lack of rainfall over the past several weeks, particularly near the Manitoba border, is resulting in some really high to extreme fire behaviour and fast rates of spread."

Late Wednesday afternoon, Webequie First Nation issued a pre-evacuation notice to its members due to a nearby wildfire, encouraging people to prepare 72-hour emergency kits with medications, ID, water, clothing and charging cables as a precaution.

"As one set of tankers were headed to Deer Lake, another set of tankers were headed to that community," Marchand said.

Earlier in May, an evacuation order was issued in Wabaseemoong Independent Nations due to Kenora 20, an active wildfire in the northwest which is now 32,000 hectares large. Evacuees are staying in Niagara Falls, Winnipeg and Kenora.

A number of restrictions remain in effect in the region, including a restricted fire zone, travel bans and limits on access to certain lakes and waterways, as the wildland fire hazard remains high to extreme.

"We would ask that residents obey the restricted fire zone at this time, when we have a lot of our resources engaged in emerging situations. We don't need any more human-caused fires on the landscape," Marchand said.