Fire evacuees seek refuge in Ottawa

A group of people fleeing forest fires in northwestern Ontario landed in Ottawa Wednesday evening, with more expected to arrive in the coming days.

The evacuees are mostly from Kingfisher Lake First Nation, an Oji-Cree community north of Sioux Lookout.

Roughly 100 of evacuees arrived Friday, CBC's Jaimie Kehler said, noting that twomore planes are expected to arrive by Thursday morning

Under the first wave of the evacuation, only vulnerable people are being asked to leave, including the elderly and families with infants.

They were flown out earlier Wednesday due to heavy smoke on the ground where they live.

The residents were flown by military aircraft to Thunder Bay, where they were then transferred to commercial airlines for the second leg of the flight to Ottawa, said Mike Morton, Ontario's deputy chief of emergency management. They will be housed mainly in Ottawa-area hotels.

As many as 300 people couldbe sent toOttawa. The Odawa Native Friendship Centre is providing Oji-Cree translators for the new arrivals, many of whom speak little English.

Forestfiresin northwestern Ontario have already forced more than 2,000 people out of their communities and the evacuation effort of more than1,000 others is still underway.

Most of the evacuees are being moved to other Ontario communities, including Wawa, Sudbury, Sioux Lookout, Kapuskasing, Matachewan and Greenstone. Some of the evacuees are being housed in Winnipeg.

Ministry spokeswoman Michelle Nowak said Wednesday's plan was to airlift an additional 1,200 residents from Sandy Lake, 265 out of Kingfisher and 150 out of Wunnumin Lake.

More than 100 forest fires are burning in northwestern Ontario, causing smoke to billow across a broad swath of the province's north.

The ministry said Wednesday fires covered over 300,000 hectares.