A provincial legislator says a massive wildfire that has forced the evacuation of two northern Ontario First Nations is like a “sleeping giant” at the moment.
Sol Mamakwa, the New Democrat representative for Kiiwetinoong, visited Sandy Lake First Nation on Thursday.
Much of the community of 2,000 people has been forced to leave for different parts of Ontario because of the fire known as Red Lake 12.
Ontario officials say the fire is more than 160,000 hectares in size and not under control.
The same fire earlier forced the evacuation of Deer Lake First Nation, though fire rangers have now successfully created a fire break around the perimeter of the community.
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Mamakwa says about 200 people remain in Sandy Lake First Nation, along with the fire rangers.
“It’s pretty much like a sleeping giant, the officials told me,” Mamakwa said.
Fire rangers and community members are busy working around the clock to protect buildings, he said.
They are setting up sprinkler systems around many buildings, including the community centre, as well as around large fuel tanks.
“This fire is just massive,” Mamakwa said after flying over it when he arrived Thursday around noon. There wasn’t much smoke near the community when he landed, but by the time he left around 6 p.m., smoke began billowing again.
Mamakwa has been asking several levels of government for years to invest in bigger and better runways in remote First Nations. The military flew in with massive CC-130 Hercules planes to help with the evacuation at Sandy Lake, but the aircraft “could not take the full capacity because the airstrip is too small,” he said.
Despite that, the “organized chaos” of getting nearly 2,000 people out of the community was successful, he said.
Wildfires have been raging across northern parts of Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Webequie First Nation east of Sandy Lake has also been evacuated due to a different fire that is about 11,000 hectares in size and is not under control.
More than 10,000 people in Saskatchewan and 21,000 in Manitoba have been forced out of their communities because of the fires.
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