Raging wildfires prompt new evacuation orders in northern Quebec

A Cree community in northern Quebec is being evacuated Friday morning because of heavy smoke from a nearby forest fire.

The Cree Nation of Mistissini said on its Facebook page that the community’s almost 4,000 residents should check in at a local sports complex in the morning and that transport would be provided for those who don’t have vehicles.

Evacuees are being sent to Chicoutimi, Que., around 446 kilometres to the southeast.

Mistissini is the second Quebec community to order an evacuation within the past 24 hours.

The northern Quebec city of Lebel-sur-Quévillon ordered residents to leave by Thursday evening after a fire cut off one of the two routes connecting the city to the rest of the province.

Quebec’s wildfire prevention agency says it is expanding a ban on outdoor fires to include the Gaspé Peninsula, most of the neighbouring Bas-St-Laurent region and Anticosti Island. The ban had previously only applied north of the St. Lawrence River, excluding Montreal and Laval.