Staff photo. Alvin Fiddler
The Grand Chief of Nishnawbe Aski Nation is calling on the provincial government to declare a State of Emergency to assist area First Nations threatened by forest fires.
Alvin Fiddler stresses the situation is worsening by the hour and lives are at risk and there is no time to waste.
A few hundred residents from Poplar Hill, Deer Lake and Pikangikum have already been forced to leave, with more than 5,000 residents in those communities still waiting to be evacuated.
The communities of Bearskin Lake, Sachigo Lake and North Spirit Lake are on high alert for potential evacuation.
Fiddler says it’s becoming a NAN-wide emergency that requires an immediate, coordinated response.
NAN officials says “The declaration of a State of Emergency is needed to activate a full response from all provincial agencies and organizations including aircraft and watercraft for evacuation and temporary relocation, members for the military for safety, and additional capacity for accommodating evacuees in host communities.”
There are 69 active fires in the northwest region with nine new starts Monday.
Nineteen are classed as not under control.
