THUNDER BAY — There’s no end in sight to Whitesand First Nation’s evacuation, according to Chief Lawrence Wanakamik. “But we’ll see next week,” Wanakamik told Newswatch as First Nation members continued to shelter in a south-side Thunder Bay hotel. Whitesand and Armstrong, about 220 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, evacuated 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 at its peak spanned 320,000 hectares—making it not just the largest wildfire of the 2026 season, but the largest ever recorded in Ontario. Besides Whitesand, at least two other First Nations have been heavily impacted by Thunder Bay 36.