Over 800 Deer Lake First Nation wildfire evacuees returning home after weeks in Toronto

Sarah Law · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 27, 2025 2:36 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

A period aft being displaced by the region's largest wildfire, hundreds of evacuees from Deer Lake First Nation successful northwestern Ontario are returning home.

The archetypal level retired of Toronto, wherever astir 885 radical person been staying for the past 4 weeks, near connected Friday, Chief Leonard Mamakeesic told CBC News.

The assemblage is archetypal bringing backmost its indispensable workers, who volition past beryllium capable to hole the First Nation for the large-scale repatriation of the remainder of its members. 

"Everybody's happy, right? Everybody wants to spell home. It's truly exhausting here. They privation to beryllium capable to slumber successful their ain home," said Deer Lake's caput councillor, Jeremy Sawanis. "It's truthful noisy successful Toronto, too."

The distant Oji-Cree community, located successful Treaty 5 territory, is astir 600 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay. It's lone accessible by aerial oregon wintertime road. 

Its evacuation was prompted by Red Lake 12, a wildfire that's present much than 194,000 hectares successful size. However, the occurrence is moving distant from the community, and crews are starting to instrumentality down the sprinkler systems that person been protecting the First Nation's homes and indispensable infrastructure.

For Sawanis, being successful Toronto has been a large civilization shock.

"I walk my full clip retired successful the bush, right? This conscionable gets depressing aft a while," helium said. "I should beryllium retired sportfishing and hunting, [I] request to beryllium connected the land."

Meanwhile, much than 2,000 evacuees from Sandy Lake First Nation stay successful communities successful confederate Ontario, besides due to the fact that of Red Lake 12. Its evacuation was assisted by the Canadian Armed Forces earlier successful June.

Mamakeesic hopes all of his assemblage members volition beryllium backmost successful Deer Lake by Tuesday. There's been precocious request for planes implicit the past fewer days, with members of Keewaywin First Nation besides returning home, which pushed Deer Lake's repatriation backmost a time oregon two, helium said.

"Everybody is inactive with us. We person not mislaid anybody," Mamakeesic said. "That is my main goal — get everybody backmost location safe."

'People bash care'

Earlier this week, occurrence accusation serviceman Alison Bezubiak of Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services (AFFES) told CBC News that caller rainfall and cooler temperatures person offered reprieve to FireRangers connected the beforehand lines.

However, arsenic the upwind has been warming up implicit the past mates days, the wildland occurrence hazard has worsened, and is considered chiefly mean crossed the confederate fractional of the portion and precocious crossed the Far North.

"More rainfall is expected implicit the play into Tuesday," Ontario Forest Fires said successful its latest update, connected Thursday evening.

Since the evacuation began, Mamakeesic said, he's learned 3 cardinal lessons: patience, the value of moving together and the worth of communication. 

He's been satisfied with the accommodations provided successful Toronto and the information services offered by ISN Maskwa, an Indigenous exigency operations centre, which were supplemented by his ain members, helium said.

"[I have] gratitude for each the patience and radical that person reached retired to assistance us. There are surrounding tribal councils that person reached out, the Lions Club arsenic well, and there's radical that person reached retired [from] surrounding organizations arsenic good — they're dropping disconnected donations," Mamakeesic said. "People bash care."

People tin cheque the presumption of the wildfires closest to them by accessing Ontario's interactive wood occurrence representation online.