When a wildfire broke out near his First Nation community in northern Ontario, Hubert Wigwas decided to stay put.
He put sprinklers on his roof to extinguish falling embers. He checked on elders in his community who also stayed behind, and he fuelled up four boats down on the lake in case they needed a quick escape.
“This is everything I’ve built in my 58 years,” Wigwas, a councillor from Gull Bay First Nation, told the BBC. “I’m just not going to run away and let it burn.”
Canada has seen some of its worst fire seasons in recent years, and experienced its most destructive on record in 2023, when blazes tore through forest land roughly the size of Syria. As of this August, more than 750 wildfires are actively burning across the country.
The impact has been felt as far as the US Midwest, where smoke had choked the air in cities. Even President Donald Trump has taken note, threatening to further tariff Canada for allowing “filthy, polluted” air to waft south of the border.
The intensifying wildfires have sparked a national conversation: Are there enough firefighters to battle these more challenging fire seasons? What happens when resources are stretched too thin? And how can remote communities, often closest to danger because of their proximity to Canada’s vast boreal forest, learn to live with this new reality?
Wigwas asked himself these questions when he decided to stay, even as he faces a fine of around C$800 ($570; £425) for defying evacuation orders.
Leaders of Gull Bay First Nation, also known as Kiashke Zaaging Anishinaabek, have been urging residents to stay away since mid-July as more than 150 wildfires burn across Ontario’s northwest.
Its chief penned a letter on 29 July pleading with those who have remained to leave immediately, saying that Ontario firefighters cannot do their jobs safely with people still in their homes.
It is the same message officials across the country have been conveying in British Columbia, where around 115 fires are currently burning.
But with a wildfire 24km outside his community, Wigwas, speaking in late July, said he had yet to see fire personnel from out of town there to help fireproof properties or keep an eye out on the elders who remained.
He said it made him realise that his First Nation would benefit from setting up its own wildfire emergency response and teaching residents how to protect their own homes.
“Everybody talks about climate change, but nobody is doing something to unite the (First Nations) reserves and have a system like that set up,” Wigwas said.
Dave Bradley, a spokesperson for Ontario’s ministry of natural resources, did not address Wigwas’ claim directly, but said the province has been in “constant contact” with First Nations leaders.
He added that fire fighting resources are directed based on “fire behaviour, weather conditions and risks to communities.”
