UPDATE: Highway 11 and Highway 17 have since been re-opened.
A series of forest fires east of Thunder Bay forced the closure of both highway passages across Canada for five hours on Monday.
Thick smoke from nearby fires caused the Ontario Provincial Police to close Highway 17 between Marathon and White River around 5 p.m. An hour later, a 1,900-hectare fire burning near Hearst prompted the closure of Highway 11 between Hearst and Longlac.
The OPP opened Highway 17 at 11 p.m. Monday and Highway 11 shortly after noon Tuesday.
Greenstone
Waterbombers beat back a 12-hectare fire that threatened Geraldton Monday evening, stopping the flames about 15 metres from buildings on the west side of town.
Residents in the neighbourhood were allowed to return to their homes by mid-evening.
An evacuation order issued for the Geraldton District Hospital was rescinded before patients and staff were required to leave.
"We are very, very lucky to be around. It could have been a lot more serious," said Greenstone Mayor Renald Beaulieu.
Union Gas shut off natural gas to the entire Geraldton area as a precaution.
Beaulieu said the municipality declared a state of emergency after the threat abated to ensure natural gas services can be monitored and restored as soon as possible..
"It could take two to four days and we're asking people to please bear with us," Beauleu said.
"At least it's not 40 below zero so we have to look at it that way."
Two fires joined together near the Greenstone Regional Airport but it was also not damaged The nearby Highway 584 has been closed since 5 p.m. Monday.
Around 25 people evacuated from homes in the Hutchinson Lake area on Highway 584. They stayed in the Longlac Arena on Monday night. They remain under evacuation and are now accommodated in local motels.
Hydro One issued notice the fires may have been causing power interruptions near Hornepayne, Mobert, White River, Lessards and other area communities. The company said its crews were onsite in the early evening assessing damage but expressed no estimated timeline for repair.
For more information on outages, Hydro One urged the public to consult the power outage viewer.
Lake Superior North Shore
Trans-Canada traffic was held up in White River and Marathon for six hours Monday as community volunteer firefighters joined the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry firefighters and emergency workers in fighting a number of fires.
Tthe 294-hectare fire died down through those suppression efforts and a shift in the weather.
"With all the rain we had, everything worked out pretty well," said Marathon Mayor Rick Dumas.
"The wind died down and the rain came and everything worked out."
Barrick's Hemlo Gold Mine between the two towns was evacuated but suffered no property damage by the time the fire had passed. As of 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, power had yet to return.
White River lost power at 6:15 p.m. Monday and is expected to be without electricity until 11 p.m. Tuesday.
"I think people are taking it fairly well," said White River CAO Tina Forsyth.
"It's not the first time the power has gone out in White River and it's not the first time it has gone out for long periods so most people have been there before."
