Hundreds evacuated in Northwestern Ontario as Minnesota fire shifts

[CHIMO]

Source: Canadian Press

Toronto — Police and forestry officials were shepherding hundreds of people out of a remote area in Northwestern Ontario Saturday because of a wildfire that crept across the U.S. border.

Staff with Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources spent Saturday checking cottages in the area, about 75 kilometres west of Thunder Bay, Ont., making sure people left the danger zone.

“We're asking individuals to leave the area for public safety reasons,” said Dave Jackson, a fire information officer with Natural Resources.

“I don't think they'll need an awful lot of convincing because there is quite a bit of smoke from the nearby fire.”


A water-dropping plane gathers water from Gunflint Lake along the Gunflint Trail. The aircraft have been attempted to beat back the fire, one of Minnesota's most damaging wildfires in years. (Ann Heisenfelt/Associated Press)



Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070512.wfireontario0512/BNStory/National/home

[1620rock]

1. This is a forest fire. Not a brush fire (wildfire.)

[Zookeeper]

2. That is such an incredibly beautiful area!

Quite a few cabins on the Gunflint Trail have been lost and it's sad to see the damage to the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area.

My thoughts are with the folks up there. :hug:

[Drum]

3. Same here...

I've only been to that area (Boundary Waters) once...canoe-camping weekend, and how magical it was.
:hug:

[jwirr]

4. It will be beautiful again. It is amazing how well the forest can restore

itself from this kind of fire. What is not so easy to restore is the homes, cabins and resorts that are destroyed. We can sometimes smell the smoke from fires up there but the wind is blowing the other way today.

[Grey]

5. Crept ??

because of a wildfire that crept across the U.S. border. CREPT ??

How did that one sneak past the border guards?

[Bitwit1234]

6. All day yesterday

the smoke drifted to our town about 80 miles south and you could smell the smoke. Today the wind shifted, and is blowing the opposite way and it has gone. This area gets fires all the time. They showed a lot of people who were in a shelter who had to leave their homes.

That must be terrible. Having to leave and knowing there might not be anything there when you are allowed to return.