TORONTO — Premier Dalton McGuinty left the annual premiers’ meeting in Vancouver early on Thursday, heading home to deal with a rapidly growing forest fire problem in northwestern Ontario.
McGuinty’s staff said he decided to leave the conference two days early to make sure every possible assistance is being offered to those affected by the fires.
Nearly 3,000 people have been evacuated due to heavy smoke and spreading flames, with many destined for southern Ontario communities including London and Peel Region west of Toronto.
The province said 114 fires were burning over nearly 500,000 hectares of forest, mostly in the northwest, though showers have brought some temporary relief in many of the blazes.
About 2,000 firefighters and support staff, including close to 600 personnel from other provinces, are battling the fires.
The growth of larger fires is slowing but those still burning are producing large amounts of smoke, a major hazard for communities and firefighters alike.
Most of the out-of-province firefighters battling the fires are from British Columbia, which sent another 74 helpers to Ontario on Thursday, bumping its total contribution to 533.
Sixteen water bombers and 85 other aircraft were involved in the operations.
Earlier Thursday, Ontario deployed a special medical team to Thunder Bay, where evacuees are initially being sent. The unit is expected to be up and running by Friday. It will be able to deal with a range of health needs, provide assessments for evacuees and help relieve pressure on local health providers, provincial officials said.
“Our first priority is protecting people,” said Natural Resources Minister Linda Jeffrey.
, who paid a visit to Thunder Bay on Thursday.
“This is an extremely difficult situation and is affecting the lives of many Ontarians,” she said in a statement. “It is not an easy situation for anyone affected by the fires or for firefighters and other personnel working to co-ordinate the evacuations and extinguish fires.”
Stan Beardy, Grand Chief for the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, said earlier this week that the hasty evacuations have split up families. Some evacuees left home with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
“We’ve never seen forest fires this bad,” said Beardy. “We’re not talking about one or two big fires, we’re talking about 100 fires that are out of control in many cases.”
Beardy and other chiefs have urged the provincial government to call a state of emergency so more resources can be allocated to the evacuations. The First Nations’ leaders worry that fires will continue to grow, limiting visibility and eventually making it impossible for aircraft to fly in and get residents out to safety.
NDP politician Howard Hampton, whose provincial riding of Kenora-Rainy River includes many areas ravaged by the fires, said the McGuinty government isn’t moving fast enough in its efforts to put out the fires.
Hampton said that provincially owned Hydro One has refused to hook up two mobile generators offered to Pickle Lake by a mining company nearby, leaving the community without power for almost two weeks.
Meanwhile, as conditions worsened and dense smoke and flames encroached on isolated First Nations communities, the Canadian military has scrambled to fly many hundreds of residents to safety.
Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, a department of the federal government, is footing the bill for the evacuations.
Many of the displaced residents are being moved through Thunder Bay before they are put up in hotels and evacuation centres across northwestern and southern Ontario.
Dozens of evacuees began arriving at Toronto’s Pearson airport Thursday afternoon. They then boarded buses and headed for communities ready to offer them shelter.
The Salvation Army, which is providing food and clothing for evacuees, said it expected 1,800 to 2,000 people to arrive in the Peel Region beginning Thursday night.
Smaller municipalities are also rushing to create temporary shelters as communities close to the fires empty out. Officials in Thames Centre near London laid down 120 cots on the concrete floor of a local hockey rink to house around 100 evacuees expected from Sandy Lake First Nation.
The province says 227 Sandy Lake residents were moved out Thursday. The community should be fully evacuated by the end of the day.
Natural Resources spokeswoman Debbie MacLean said Thursday that while some rain has fallen in the northwest region over the past day, 11 new fires were reported. The new fires don’t appear to be threatening any additional communities, said MacLean.