Members of First Nation in northern Ontario to return home after wildfire evacuations

Smoke from wildfires is shown at Sandy Lake First Nation, Ont., in this Saturday, June 7, 2025, handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Destiny Rae (Mandatory Credit)

Residents of a First Nation in northern Ontario will start returning home Friday after a wildfire threatened the community early last month and forced more than 2,000 people to evacuate, officials said.

Sandy Lake First Nation said in a social media post on Tuesday that repatriation will start Friday evening, with security and essential service providers going first to help prepare for the arrival of other residents.

The provincial government said Thursday that firefighting crews no longer need pumps and hoses in areas where the fire was sufficiently suppressed, although they continue to put out hot spots in southern and eastern sections of the fire.

The fire that threatened Sandy Lake First Nation and Deer Lake First Nation is more than 1,900 square kilometres in size and remains out of control, the province’s natural resources ministry said. It noted that fire behaviour remains low but could increase over the next two days under current weather conditions.

Sandy Lake First Nation said it could take up to two weeks to get everyone home, as the residents were evacuated to seven locations across the province.

“All partners have agreed to work hard to speed up this process,” it said, adding people will likely return in the reverse order they left, with those who are elderly, have high-risk medical needs or have infants going towards the end.

Last month, National Defence sent military planes to airlift hundreds out of the First Nation as the fire doubled in size to almost 1,500 square kilometres.

The province said there are 44 active wildfires in northwest Ontario as of Thursday, with 15 of them out of control.

Across the country, tens of thousands have fled from raging wildfires in recent weeks in British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

The intense start to the wildfire season has strained Canada’s firefighting resources and international help is being “mobilized,” said the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre in its latest situation report.

Statistics compiled by the agency overseeing Canada’s wildland firefighting response indicate almost 30,000 square kilometres of land have burned so far this year, triple the five-year average or almost seven times the 25-year average to date.

Studies have shown how climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, has lengthened and intensified Canada’s fire season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 4, 2025.

Rianna Lim, The Canadian Press