{"id":107214,"date":"2026-07-24T08:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T12:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=107214"},"modified":"2026-07-24T08:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T12:36:12","slug":"thunder-bay-36-largest-wildfire-in-ontario-history-by-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/24\/thunder-bay-36-largest-wildfire-in-ontario-history-by-far\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunder Bay 36 largest wildfire in Ontario history \u2014 by far"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mike Stimpson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, SNnewswatch.com THUNDER BAY \u2014 There\u2019s no end in sight to Whitesand First Nation\u2019s evacuation, Chief Lawrence Wanakamik said Thursday. \u201cBut we\u2019ll see next week,\u201d Wanakamik told Newswatch as First Nation members continued to shelter in a south-side Thunder Bay hotel. The chief said he heard earlier this week from band members who are still on the reserve next to Armstrong, and they said all buildings there are still standing. Whitesand and Armstrong, about 220 kilometres north of the city, evacuated last week as a raging forest fire neared the communities. The blaze, which has merged with other wildfires and is now labelled Thunder Bay 36, remains out of control and spans nearly 320,000 hectares \u2014 making it not just the largest wildfire of… <\/p>\n

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By Mike Stimpson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, SNnewswatch.com THUNDER BAY \u2014 There\u2019s no end in sight to Whitesand First Nation\u2019s evacuation, Chief Lawrence Wanakamik said Thursday. \u201cBut we\u2019ll see next week,\u201d Wanakamik told Newswatch as First Nation members continued to shelter in a south-side Thunder Bay hotel. The chief said he heard earlier this week from band members who are still on the reserve next to Armstrong, and they said all buildings there are still standing. Whitesand and Armstrong, about 220 kilometres north of the city, evacuated last week as a raging forest fire neared the communities. The blaze, which has merged with other wildfires and is now labelled Thunder Bay 36, remains out of control and spans nearly 320,000 hectares \u2014 making it not just the largest wildfire of... <\/p>\n

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Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-level-8","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"\nThunder Bay 36 largest wildfire in Ontario history \u2014 by far - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/24\/thunder-bay-36-largest-wildfire-in-ontario-history-by-far\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thunder Bay 36 largest wildfire in Ontario history \u2014 by far - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Mike Stimpson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, SNnewswatch.com THUNDER BAY \u2014 There\u2019s no end in sight to Whitesand First Nation\u2019s evacuation, Chief Lawrence Wanakamik said Thursday. \u201cBut we\u2019ll see next week,\u201d Wanakamik told Newswatch as First Nation members continued to shelter in a south-side Thunder Bay hotel. The chief said he heard earlier this week from band members who are still on the reserve next to Armstrong, and they said all buildings there are still standing. Whitesand and Armstrong, about 220 kilometres north of the city, evacuated last week as a raging forest fire neared the communities. The blaze, which has merged with other wildfires and is now labelled Thunder Bay 36, remains out of control and spans nearly 320,000 hectares \u2014 making it not just the largest wildfire of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/24\/thunder-bay-36-largest-wildfire-in-ontario-history-by-far\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-24T12:36:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/24\\\/thunder-bay-36-largest-wildfire-in-ontario-history-by-far\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/24\\\/thunder-bay-36-largest-wildfire-in-ontario-history-by-far\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Thunder Bay 36 largest wildfire in Ontario history \u2014 by far\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-24T12:36:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/24\\\/thunder-bay-36-largest-wildfire-in-ontario-history-by-far\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":366,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/24\\\/thunder-bay-36-largest-wildfire-in-ontario-history-by-far\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/24\\\/thunder-bay-36-largest-wildfire-in-ontario-history-by-far\\\/\",\"name\":\"Thunder Bay 36 largest wildfire in Ontario history \u2014 by far - 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