Hundreds Evacuated in Northwestern Ontario As Minnesota Fire Shifts

TORONTO (CP) – Police and forestry officials were shepherding hundreds of people out of a remote area in Northwestern Ontario Saturday because of a wildfire that crept across the U.S. border.

Staff with Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources spent Saturday checking cottages in the area, about 75 kilometres west of Thunder Bay, Ont., making sure people left the danger zone.

“We’re asking individuals to leave the area for public safety reasons,” said Dave Jackson, a fire information officer with Natural Resources.

“I don’t think they’ll need an awful lot of convincing because there is quite a bit of smoke from the nearby fire.”

Ministry officials estimated the fire had scorched about 100 square kilometres on the Canadian side of the border. U.S. officials said it had burned about 120 square kilometres in Minnesota.

An evacuation order was first issued Friday and was expanded Saturday because of fears about changing wind conditions.

Jackson said there were no major communities in the border area that is studded with lakes, mostly hunting and fishing lodges and cottages.

Officials estimated there were between 200 and 300 people in the area.

“We’re in the process of going door to door and documenting who’s in and who’s out,” Jackson said.

The Ontario Provincial Police were called in to look for people in the evacuation zone, a time consuming process because the cottages are spread apart, Jackson said.

Roads into the area have been blocked and nobody was being allowed in, he added.

A wider area encompassing another 400 to 500 additional cottages was under evacuation alert in case the fire further expands on the Canadian side.

“We’re constantly assessing it,” said Jackson.

Ontario officials were in the process of preparing efforts to actually fight the fire, he added.

Meanwhile, some evacuation orders in Minnesota were lifted, allowing some of the hundreds of evacuated residents to return to their homes and cabins. Firefighters in Minnesota were planning a controlled burn to curb the fire’s progress.

The fire closed about half of the 92-kilometre-long Gunflint Trail, a key route from Grand Marais, Minn. into the wilderness that is dotted with resorts and lake homes.

Saturday’s weather was clear and sunny with light winds from the east. But officials were more concerned about Sunday, when winds were expected to increase between 24 and 40 kilometres an hour. A 40 per cent chance of thunderstorms was forecast Sunday, the first significant rainfall in almost a week.

The winds had blown smoke from the fire as far east as Thunder Bay.