Update on Northwestern Ontario Forest Fires and Evacuations – July 24
Evacuation operations in the past few days have brought 3,591 people to safety. All required evacuations are now complete. No further evacuations are planned at this time. We are constantly re-assessing the need for future evacuations with First Nations Leadership. All necessary resources are available and on standby should evacuations need to be resumed.
Keeping families and communities together has been a priority during the evacuations. Registration lists are being shared among all host communities to make it easier to locate and reunite family members who may have become separated. The Canadian Red Cross has also set up a central registry to help residents of evacuated communities locate family members. The contact number for the Red Cross registry is: 1-866-356-3645 ext. 236.
The Emergency Medical Assistance Team (EMAT) staff and equipment, which had been set up in Thunder Bay to help during the evacuations, is being moved to Geraldton (part of Greenstone) to help support the more than 1,000 evacuated residents hosted in that community.
Fire fighting efforts continue across northwestern Ontario, with a focus on protecting human health and safety.
For the next few days, the weather forecast continues in favour of firefighting efforts.
At this time, there is low risk from fire to any First Nations communities.
