Quebec wildfires: Cree community orders evacuation due to heavy smoke
MONTREAL – A Cree community in northern Quebec is being evacuated this morning due to heavy smoke from a nearby wildfire.
The Cree Nation of Mistissini said on its Facebook page that the community’s nearly 4,000 residents should check in this morning at a local sports complex and transportation would be arranged for those without vehicles.
Evacuees are being sent to Chicoutimi, Que., about 270 miles southeast.
Mistissini is the second community in Quebec to order an evacuation in the past 24 hours.
Lebel-sur-Quévillon, a town in northern Quebec, ordered residents to leave Thursday night after a fire cut off one of two routes connecting the town to the rest of the province.
Quebec’s wildfire prevention agency says it is extending a ban on outdoor fires to the Gaspé Peninsula, most of the neighboring region of Bas-St-Laurent and Anticosti Island. The ban previously only applied north of the St. Lawrence River, with the exception of Montreal and Laval.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on June 23, 2023.
