Whitewater Lake community members heading home

Whitewater Lake community members are heading back home after a nearby forest fire was water bombed by the Ministry of Natural Resources Aug. 4.
“I think it is safe now to go back to the community,” said Whitewater Lake Chief Arlene Slipperjack during an Aug. 5 interview. “I would like to thank the MNR on their quick response in dealing with this matter.”
Slipperjack had issued a press release Aug. 4 expressing concerns about a lack of response from the MNR to the 358-hectare forest fire, Thunder Bay Fire 57, which was located about one to two kilometres from the Windigo First Nations Council community. Whitewater Lake is a Treaty 9 community located on Whitewater Lake in Wabakimi Provincial Park northwest of Nipigon Lake.
“The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources is not listening to us as we continue to plead for help in battling forest fires burning near the community,” Slipperjack said in the press release. “The fires are posing a serious and immediate threat to us and we do not have the resources available ourselves to battle them.”
Slipperjack said the MNR water bombed the forest fire on the afternoon of Aug. 4 after the press release was issued.
“After we did the press release, shortly after that the water bombers went in and worked there for a few hours,” Slipperjack said during an Aug. 5 interview. “It (forest fire) was still sizzling, but I haven’t an update yet this morning.”
An MNR spokesman said the forest fire was “just smouldering” when the MNR water bombers finished about four hours of water bombing on the fire.
“We had four water bombers on that,” said Art Osborne, provincial information officer with the MNR. “We had been monitoring and been aware of that fire since July 31. We carried out a fire assessment Aug. 1 and decided to put sprinklers in the Whitewater location to protect structures at that time.”
The Incident Management Team’s plan of action was to put suppression on the north and east sides of the forest fire to limit spread towards structures at Whitewater Lake.
“We had several reconnaissance flights that took place (Aug.) 2 and 3,” Osborne said. “The fire was not determined to be threatening or of any danger at that time.”
Osborne said two water bombers began working the forest fire Aug. 4 at 2 p.m., with two other water bombers joining in later in the day for four hours on the north and east side.
“There was no difference in how that fire was managed from the other 113 that are currently burning in Ontario,” Osborne said.
Osborne said there are five forest fires within Wabakimi Provincial Park that are being monitored and have suppression activities on them.
“The largest fire is Thunder Bay 50,” Osborne said, noting it covers 16,000 hectares and is located about 15 kilometres west of Whitewater Lake. “That has been generating a lot of smoke and it might have been that fire that created them (Whitewater Lake community members) some worry.”
Whitewater Lake called in a private airline to evacuate about 18 community members July 31 due to the forest fire, with three community members staying behind to keep the water sprinkler system operational in the community.
“They manned the hoses and the MNR was there yesterday water bombing for a few hours,” Slipperjack said.
The community had purchased water pumps, hoses and sprinklers in an attempt to prevent the forest fires from growing and moving closer to the community.
Slipperjack said the MNR had planned to let the fires burn out naturally, but the community could not wait for that.
“The forest fires are destroying the wildlife habitat in our traditional territory and soon property will be damaged if immediate action is not taken,” Slipperjack said in the press release.
About 3,500 Nishnawbe Aski Nation community members were evacuated during mid-to-late July due to smoke or forest fire threats from 11 First Nation communities. Most of the evacuees have since returned home.
Ontario has had 709 forest fires as of Aug. 3, covering an area of 579,696 hectares.