Firefighters continue to chip away at Sioux Lookout Fire no 35

The forest fire that forced an evacuation of a northern First Nation community is now nearly 66,000 hectares in size, reports Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources.

An evacuation order for the area around Sioux Lookout Fire no. 35 remains in effect as firefighters continue their efforts to extinguish the massive blaze. The fire led to the evacuation of Mishkeegogomang First Nations residents last week, and now those evacuees are waiting for news from the Sioux Lookout, Igance and Greenstone towns they’ve been sent to.

North and southwest winds are expected to direct smoke away from the evacuated community, which is situated near Pickle Lake.

Meanwhile, Mother Nature isn’t expected to have a significant impact on fire suppression efforts. While heavy rainfall and thunderstorms are in the forecast, the MNR isn’t expecting much of that rain to fall over the fire itself.

The total number of fires this season is now at 285. While that is less than half of last season as of this date, the number of hectares burned is moving toward 77,000 – about 5.5 times the area burned last year at this time.

That is also well ahead of the 10-year average, which is 43,389 hectares.No injuries have been reported as a result of this fire.