TORONTO, July 16 (Reuters) – Ontario requested federal assistance to evacuate people from remote northern Canadian communities ravaged by wildfires on Thursday, as smoke brought poor air quality to Toronto and much of the Northeastern U.S.
Canada has more active wildfires than it had as of mid-July for the past two years and a larger area has burned compared to 2025. Most of the fires are in remote areas of the central provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario.
Wildfires in recent years have overwhelmingly impacted remote indigenous communities. Indigenous Services Canada said 1,600 individuals had been evacuated from First Nations communities due to fires this season, as of July 15.
Namaygoosisagagun First Nation, also known as Collins First Nation, in northwestern Ontario was evacuated on Monday after a fast-moving wildfire swept into the area near Armstrong, more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of Toronto, CBC News reported.
Community members went door to door warning residents before more than two dozen people and their pets escaped aboard several boats as flames approached homes, footage showed. Chief Helen Paavola told CBC the entire community was destroyed in less than an hour.
The wildfire affecting the Armstrong area, including Namaygoosisagagun and nearby Whitesand First Nation, had grown to more than 350,000 hectares by Thursday, according to Ontario’s Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services.
“In response to the significant threat of wildland fire activity in northern Ontario, the province has issued a formal Request for Assistance to the Government of Canada to be prepared to expedite the deployment of federal resources to support evacuations,” Ontario’s minister of emergency preparedness, Jill Dunlop, said on X. She said help sought included Canadian Armed Forces deployments.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said the federal government is in close communication with provincial and municipal counterparts and will provide additional assistance as needed.
Some 859 active fires were burning in the country on Thursday, and 113 were considered out of control, according to the government. So far, 2.384 million hectares (5.89 million acres) have burned.
“The wildfire situation has escalated significantly over the last three weeks across the country, and particularly in Northwestern Ontario,” Carney said on Wednesday night. “Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate their communities, not knowing if their homes will survive.”
Canadian National Railway said employees in the area and residents of the town of Armstrong were evacuated on Monday night after a viral video shared on social media showed a CN train surrounded by fire in the area.
CN said it had suspended rail operations near Armstrong as a precaution due to the wildfires.
Vancouver-based Fury Gold Mines said on Wednesday that it had temporarily suspended exploration and drilling at its Eau Claire project in northern Quebec after evacuating all personnel due to a nearby forest fire.
Australia-listed Green Technology Metals, which is focused on lithium exploration, has a mine located near Armstrong. Green Technology did not respond to an email query by Reuters on whether it had evacuated its staff.
Most northern Ontario gold mines are located far from the current fires.
Many wildfire evacuees are in Thunder Bay, the most populous city in Northwest Ontario.
(Reporting by Wa Lone, David Ljunggren, Nivedita Balu and Divya Rajagopal; Writing by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Mark Porter)
