Sandy Lake evacuees ready to start heading home

SANDY LAKE— Nearly a month after a forest fire forced over 2000 community members to leave Sandy Lake First Nation, they are scheduled to start making their way home on Friday.

Residents were forced to evacuate the First Nation on June 9 by the the rapid approach of Red Lake 12, which eventually grew to be largest wildfire on record in Ontario. Once in the air, the evacuees made their way to Thunder Bay and then continued on to several host sites around the province.

“Community leadership is comfortable with the progress that has been made on protecting their communities and have made that decision to allow their residents to return home,” said Chris Marchand, fire information officer with Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services.

Security and essential service workers will return to the First Nations first, in the evening on Friday, to prepare for the arrival of other community members.

The First Nation said that flight arrangements will be prepared once additional details are confirmed, and that community members will likely return home in the reverse order they left, with elders, infants and high-risk medical patients returning to the community last.

“Fire suppression has to this point been focused on protecting the nearby communities and really removing that threat of growth towards critical infrastructure,” he said.

Currently, The Red Lake 12 fire is 195,670 hectares in size and remains not under control, crews continue to monitor the southern and eastern perimeters for hotspots while starting the demobilization of equipment in Sandy Lake, said the MNR.

“Fires of this size require a considerable amount of resources and favourable weather conditions such as heavy rainfall and cooler temperatures to be able to see that change in their control status,” he said.