Mattagami First Nation asks its most vulnerable to leave as forest fire looms

As Bonnie Fletcher packed her personal belongings to escape an oncoming forest fire, she had flashbacks to the last time Mattagami First Nation was evacuated for the same reason, back in 2012.

"It wasn't easy," she told Radio-Canada in French. "I remember it like it was yesterday."

Fletcher said she did not sleep well Monday night as those memories came back, and she made sure to pack her family photos, clothes, and snacks for her grandchildren before boarding an evacuation bus for a second time.

On Tuesday the northern Ontario First Nation's leaders announced that between 70 and 80 of the community's most vulnerable people would be boarding an Ontario Northland Bus on Thursday.

That bus would be headed to Orillia, in southern Ontario.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Timmins 7 fire, south of the city for which it is named, was about36 kilometres from Mattagami First Nation.

According to Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, the fire covered about120 hectares by that time.

It was among a dozen fires burning around different parts of northeastern Ontario on Tuesday. The smaller Timmins 8 fire, also near Mattagami First Nation, was under control.

"It lifts some weight from our shoulders," said Brent Boissoneau, the First Nation's emergency management co-ordinator.

Boissoneau said they decided to evacuate the community's most vulnerable including elders, young children and pregnant mothers to southern Ontario so they could escape the smoke that has blanketed much of the north.

"It didn't really make sense to put our most vulnerable people in cities that were already filled with smoke, that have surrounding fires around them," he said.

By Tuesday, Boissoneau said no decisions had yet been made on whether or not the community's other residents should leave.

He said they would have another update Wednesday, when they know more about how the Timmins 7 fire has progressed.