Protecting the home front

Sandy Lake Chief Adam Fiddler applauded the efforts of 20 community members who stayed behind with him after the rest of the community was evacuated due to smoke from forest fires.
“If they were not here with me, I would have sunk,” Fiddler said dur- ing a July 28 interview. “It was as if we were in a big canoe – they were the ones paddling and all I was doing was steering. If they were not here with me, we would have gone nowhere, so I really appreciated those 20 people who stayed with me.”
The community members stayed behind to help keep the power plant and water treatment plant operating as well as patrol the community. Sprinkler systems were set up to protect the homes and many of the larger buildings.
Fiddler said it was his responsibility as chief to stay behind and look after the community in a July 21 YouTube video press release, which was posted to keep evacuated residents informed of the situation in their community.
“I fill more than an administrative role,” Fiddler said. “I have a traditional obligation as chief to protect and ensure the safety of all of the members of the First Nation as well as the community.”
Fiddler and the 20 community members felt as if they were “on edge” due to the forest fire.
“But we were also very heavy and very tense knowing our people were going through a lot out in the different evacuee host sites,” he said.
Most of Sandy Lake’s 2,700 community members were evacuated July 18-21 due to smoke from a forest fire about nine kilometres from the Sandy Lake power plant. As of July 21, the fire was about 3,500 hectares in size.
Fiddler planned to stay in the community until the last possible moment.
“I knew there were MNR (Ministry of Natural Resources) crews here if we had to leave when the fire got close,” Fiddler said. “I also have a boat down at the lake and that would have been an option as well.”
Fortunately, the forest fires did not approach the community. A few days of cool weather helped with the fire fighting efforts in the area, stopping the fires from getting any closer to the community. About 100 support people who left July 21 returned July 27 to help prepare
for the return of the rest of the community beginning July 29.
“When they arrived on Wednesday (July 27), it was just emotional for me,” Fiddler said. “I was very tense, but when they landed it just took a big load off my shoulders. It was the first time I felt relived since they left know- ing I had that support back in the community.”
As of Aug. 1, about 1,213 Sandy Lake evacuees had returned home.
Sandy Lake’s Melody Manoakeesick was glad she was evacuated July 19 after she saw a photograph of forest fire smoke billowing over the Northern Store in her community.
“I didn’t want to go, but after seeing that picture I was glad I just went to the airport,” Manoakeesick said the day after she and her three-year-old son were evacuated. “I just threw stuff in a bag and went to the airport because they said the plane was going to be there in half an hour. And I real- ize I didn’t pack enough stuff. It was a rush. It was unreal. It didn’t feel real at first.”
Manoakeesick and about 250 other community members from Sandy Lake were lodged at the Victoria Inn in Thunder Bay as part of their community’s July 18-19 phase-one evacuation. About 750 community members were also evacuated from Sandy Lake during that phase of the evacuation.
About 1,000 community members were evacuated July 20-21 to locations across Ontario, including a group who were sent by bus during the middle of the night to Wawa. The remaining community members had already been out of the community before the evacuation or had left on their own before the official evacuations.
“They’re really hospitable, the staff here (at the Victoria Inn), and the meals provided are wonderful,” Manoakeesick said. “They’re just like full course meals, even breakfast right up until supper. Everybody is very helpful at the Victoria Inn.”
Manoakeesick appreciates all the work being done to protect her community during the evacuation, including the setting up of the sprinkler systems to protect buildings.
“My husband is one of the last support people that are going to (leave) Sandy Lake,” Manoakeesick said. “He was told that he is in the last possible loads because he is helping the other groups.”
Manoakeesick is concerned because her husband has been told the last groups to be evacuated could be sent to Kitchener, in southern Ontario.
Evacuees began returning home July 26, starting with Mishkeegogamang and Eabametoong. As of Aug. 1, about 2,582 evacuees had returned to their communities. Emergency Management Ontario estimates all evacuees would be back home by Aug. 3.