KASABONIKA – Recent rainfall has been helpful to wildland firefighters working to protect Kasabonika First Nation.
The community “is currently being affected by a cluster of six wildland fires of varying sizes, and located between six kilometres to the south and as far as 20 kilometres away to the north-west of the community,” Chris Marchand, regional fire information officer, told Newswatch.
“The Kasabonika Lake Weather Station recorded approximately five to ten millimetres of overnight rainfall, which definitely temporarily lowers fire behaviour and supports our suppression efforts,” he said.
Although Monday night rain helped, he said, the fires are still not under control. The community is continuing to evacuate its most vulnerable members.
Kasabonika Chief Matthias Anderson expects a total of 400 mothers and children, elders, and people with medical conditions to have evacuated to Toronto by end of day Tuesday.
The community is still in phase one of its evacuation which includes vulnerable populations. When or whether phase two will begin is being looked into, Anderson said, but is still undetermined.
The evacuees have been flying to Toronto, via Thunder Bay, since this weekend, with all residents staying in a hotel. Anderson said that, as of Tuesday morning, 199 people had been evacuated with another 200 are expected to go throughout the day.
“It’s a big city and not many people are used to it,” Anderson said. “It’s a lot of unknown elements for them.”
For those still in the community, the smoke is currently the biggest concern, he said.
The fires began after a period of widespread lightning across the North, according to Marchand.
Two of the six fires are “the highest priority for firefighting efforts,” with Nipigon 16 at 1,474 hectares and Nipigon 12 at 1,110 hectares.
The other four, titled Nipigon 13, 14, 15 and 17 range in size from 0.1 to 298 hectares, Marchand said.
Wildland fires can be tracked online through the Ministry of Natural Resources’ forest fire info map.
