La Loche, Turner Lake among communities with evacuations orders lifted

There was some good news this past week for residents evacuated from La Loche and Turner Lake due to the wildfires.

Evacuation orders for the two communities have been lifted. The order for Turner Lake and Birch Narrows was lifted Wednesday, and the order for La Loche was lifted Thursday.

Officials on a conference call with reporters Thursday morning say both communities have received “partial clearance” for evacuated residents to start to go back, with the exception of health-priority individuals. It was reported Friday around 2,000 evacuees were expected to be able to return to their homes.

The news is of importance to evacuees staying at hotels in North Battleford and receiving services from Emergency Social Services and the Red Cross.

The evacuees in North Battleford had been primarily from La Loche and Turner Lake areas. The number stood at 256 evacuees as of that morning, down somewhat from the 300-400 over the past several days.

However, the bulk of those staying in North Battleford described as “medical priorities” and are not heading back right away.

According to Karri Kempf of emergency social services, they will “remain with us and continue to receive services until full health provisions are met and the community allows health-priority individuals to return.” 

Kempf made it clear the North Battleford evacuation centre will continue to provide services in the city even as numbers start to go down.

“No person is going to be left without services,” said Kempf. “When we start to see the numbers decrease we simply modify our service delivery. In North Battleford and in Regina we’ll still have a presence daily in the hotels where we have individuals registered. There will still be a Red Cross presence, and they’ll still have access to all their regular services.”

The La Loche and Turner Lake areas are among a growing list of communities that have seen their evacuation orders lifted and evacuees begin to return home.

Thursday it was also announced evacuation orders had been lifted in several other communities and those were beginning implementation of the return of residents. Those include Montreal Lake, Weyakwin, Timber Bay, Ramsey Bay, Dillon and Michel Village-St. George’s Hill.

Those plans to return evacuees to those communities were due to happen Thursday and Friday. Most communities have a partial clearance to allow people to return, but Montreal Lake has full clearance.

Residents of Pinehouse got the go-ahead to return Wednesday.

Overall, fire officials continue to sound increasingly confident about progress in fighting the wildfires in the north.

Forecasts of 20-30 mm of rain were seen as “good news for firefighters,” said Daryl Jessop director of wildfire support with wildfire management branch, Ministry of Environment.

While there are still 127 fires in the province as of Thursday and 627 total for the year, Jessop noted firefighters were “moving from that defensive mode to an offensive mode where we can do more work on the fire, on the fireline, and away from the community where communities have been secured.”