{"id":95070,"date":"2025-07-23T09:40:31","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T13:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=95070"},"modified":"2025-07-23T09:40:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T13:40:31","slug":"earlton-airport-handles-its-first-forest-fire-evacuation-flights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/23\/earlton-airport-handles-its-first-forest-fire-evacuation-flights\/","title":{"rendered":"Earlton airport handles its first forest fire evacuation flights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Diane Johnston, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Temiskaming Speaker EARLTON \u2013 For what&#8217;s believed to be the first time in its history, the Earlton-Timiskaming Regional Airport has served as a landing stop for forest fire evacuees. On July 19, it handled four flights carrying a total of 136 passengers who were evacuated from Pikangikum First Nation in Northwestern Ontario. &#8220;Everything ran smoothly,&#8221; said airport manager Jamie Smith earlier this week. Smith said the airport was notified on Friday evening that flights would be coming on Saturday afternoon. The first flight landed at about 2:30 p.m. He said it was a tight turnaround to get passengers off the plane and on to buses to take them to Kirkland Lake, and then refuel the plane so it could depart before the next&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F07%2F23%2Fearlton-airport-handles-its-first-forest-fire-evacuation-flights%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Diane Johnston, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Temiskaming Speaker EARLTON \u2013 For what&#8217;s believed to be the first time in its history, the Earlton-Timiskaming Regional Airport has served as a landing stop for forest fire evacuees. On July 19, it handled four flights carrying a total of 136 passengers who were evacuated from Pikangikum First Nation in Northwestern Ontario. &#8220;Everything ran smoothly,&#8221; said airport manager Jamie Smith earlier this week. Smith said the airport was notified on Friday evening that flights would be coming on Saturday afternoon. The first flight landed at about 2:30 p.m. He said it was a tight turnaround to get passengers off the plane and on to buses to take them to Kirkland Lake, and then refuel the plane so it could depart before the next... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F07%2F23%2Fearlton-airport-handles-its-first-forest-fire-evacuation-flights%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95070","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-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Earlton airport handles its first forest fire evacuation flights - 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\/2025\/07\/23\/earlton-airport-handles-its-first-forest-fire-evacuation-flights\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Earlton airport handles its first forest fire evacuation flights - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Diane Johnston, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Temiskaming Speaker EARLTON \u2013 For what&#8217;s believed to be the first time in its history, the Earlton-Timiskaming Regional Airport has served as a landing stop for forest fire evacuees. On July 19, it handled four flights carrying a total of 136 passengers who were evacuated from Pikangikum First Nation in Northwestern Ontario. &#8220;Everything ran smoothly,&#8221; said airport manager Jamie Smith earlier this week. Smith said the airport was notified on Friday evening that flights would be coming on Saturday afternoon. The first flight landed at about 2:30 p.m. He said it was a tight turnaround to get passengers off the plane and on to buses to take them to Kirkland Lake, and then refuel the plane so it could depart before the next\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/23\/earlton-airport-handles-its-first-forest-fire-evacuation-flights\/\" \/>\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=\"2025-07-23T13:40:31+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\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/23\\\/earlton-airport-handles-its-first-forest-fire-evacuation-flights\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/23\\\/earlton-airport-handles-its-first-forest-fire-evacuation-flights\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Earlton airport handles its first forest fire evacuation flights\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-23T13:40:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/23\\\/earlton-airport-handles-its-first-forest-fire-evacuation-flights\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":340,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/23\\\/earlton-airport-handles-its-first-forest-fire-evacuation-flights\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/23\\\/earlton-airport-handles-its-first-forest-fire-evacuation-flights\\\/\",\"name\":\"Earlton airport handles its first forest fire evacuation flights - 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