Northeastern Ontario communities host hundreds of fire evacuees from northwest
More than 1,000 people have been evacuated from Pikangikum, Deer Lake, and Poplar Hill First Nations in northwestern Ontario as raging forest fires in the area are causing air quality to plummet.
Around 500 people have been evacuated to Sudbury and several hundred more to Timmins, Cochrane and Kapuskasing.
The deputy chief of the Timmins Fire Department, Ellard Beaven, said local emergency management teams and Indigenous organizations are working together in this latest evacuation.
"Just to assist any of these evacuees with any healthcare supports, language issues, anything we can do to make their stay a little better," Beaven said.
The province declared a state of emergency in the northeast, as have host communities, in order to access more resources for battling the blaze and keeping evacuees comfortable.
Many of them are children, elderly, or have health conditions and Timmins Mayor George Pirie said the whole province has a responsibility to help in situations like this.
The least his city can do, he said, is make accommodations for the around 150 evacuees now landed and housed at a local hotel.
"(These are) the most vulnerable, the first 150 of the most vulnerable population of smoke and breathing issues," Pirie said.
Keeping them safe includes protecting them against COVID-19, explained Kapuskasing’s Mayor, Dave Plourde.
His community is hosting at least 130 people from the northwest, having set up an evacuation centre with food, medical, mental health, and education services.
Having proper public health protocols in place is also a priority, he said, especially with the province now in Step 3 of its reopening plan.
"We want to make sure that when we send them back home, that they’re not going back worse than when they came," Plourde said. "Certainly we wouldn’t want them to contract COVID-19 while they’re in our community and we’re doing our best to make sure that we have everything in place to make sure that they don’t."
The Porcupine Health Unit’s medical officer of health, Dr. Lianne Catton, said in a news briefing that the health unit will make first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccines available to evacuees who haven’t received one.
"We’ll be working with the evacuation centres in the communities themselves, to ensure that opportunities for vaccine are available," Catton said.
Beaven said usually the city hosts evacuees for two to three weeks, but in this case, it all depends on how long it takes for crews to get the forest fires under control.
With limited rainfall and high temperatures, he said there’s a possibility that the fires will worsen and that more people in the area will need to be evacuated.
"As that changes, we’ll have a better idea of when they’ll be heading back," Beaven said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Spectacular aurora light show to be seen across Canada Friday night
A rare and severe solar storm is expected to bring spectacular displays of the northern lights, also known as aurora borealis, across much of Canada and parts of the United States on Friday night.
'Tactical evacuations' underway near Fort Nelson, B.C., as wildfires encroach
The BC Wildfire Service says 'tactical evacuations' began Friday near Fort Nelson, B.C., due to an out-of-control wildfire that has grown rapidly since it was discovered earlier in the afternoon.
Snowbirds in Vancouver for puck-drop flyby as Canucks face Oilers
The Canadian Forces Snowbirds will be performing a flyover across downtown Vancouver at the start of tonight's Stanley Cup playoff game between the Canucks and the Edmonton Oilers.
McGill University seeks emergency injunction to dismantle pro-Palestinian encampment
McGill University has filed a request for an injunction to have the pro-Palestinian encampment removed from its campus.
Which Canadian cities have the highest and lowest grocery prices?
Where you live plays a big factor in what you pay at the grocery store. And while it's no secret the same item may have a different price depending on the store, city or province, we wanted to see just how big the differences are, and why.
Swarm of 20,000 bees gather around woman’s car west of Toronto
A swarm of roughly 20,000 bees gathered around a woman’s car in the parking lot of Burlington Centre.
Video shows naked raccoon catching B.C. family by surprise
When Marvin Henschel spotted a strange and hairless creature wandering through a front lawn in B.C.'s Lower Mainland, he could barely believe his eyes.
Barron Trump declines to serve as an RNC delegate
Former U.S. President Donald Trump's youngest son, Barron Trump, has declined to serve as a delegate at this summer’s Republican National Convention, according to a senior Trump campaign adviser and a statement from Melania Trump's office.
Out-of-control wildfire prompts evacuation alert for Fort McMurray, Saprae Creek Estates Friday night
An evacuation alert was issued for two Wood Buffalo communities Friday night, as crews battled an out-of-control wildfire near Fort McMurray.