A 2,000 hectare blaze about 33-kilometres northwest of Whitedog First Nation is causing snowflake-like ash to rain down on local homes.
Lightning strikes caused the fire near the Manitoba boundary and heavy smoke is being blown into Whitedog and Kenora.
Kerry Carpenter has been living in the First Nation for 57-years and he’s frustrated with the lack of response from community leaders.
Carpenter notes he wants to see an evacuation plan, stressing there’s a lot of spruce trees surrounding the community and the wind has been shifting in their direction.
He is concerned because he says 70-80% of residents don’t own a vehicle and he’s worried what will happen to them if they need to flee their homes.
Meantime, more out of province firefighters are arriving to provide support.
Twenty firefighters from Saskatchewan were assigned to the blaze Monday.
The Northwest Region is also receiving support from twenty state and federal firefighters from Minnesota.
They’re in Thunder Bay right now before being deployed to Kenora.
Additional support is coming from Alberta and Mexico.
