Canada prisoners relocated as hundreds flee wildfires

This handout image courtesy of Kosar shows smoke and flames from the fire in Fort McMurray, ALberta, Canada on May 14, 2024 as residents from the area of Abasand Heights evacuate the area. Four neighborhoods of Fort McMurray, a city in Canada’s major oil-producing region, were ordered evacuated May 14 as an out of control wildfire drew near and the skies filled with smoke.
Shifting winds gusting to 40 kilometers per hour (25 miles per hour) fanned the flames, scorching 9,600 hectares of surrounding forests as it advanced to within 13 kilometers (eight miles) of the city that had previously been gutted by wildfires in 2016 — one of the biggest disasters in the nation’s history. ( AFP / Handout / KOSAR) 

OTTAWA – Wildfires in eastern Canada forced the evacuation of hundreds of people — including 225 inmates from a maximum security prison, officials said Sunday.

The federal penitentiary in Port-Cartier, about 500 kilometers (300 miles) north of Quebec City, was ordered evacuated along with about 1,000 local residents over the weekend, and 750 workers at a hydroelectric dam in Labrador further north.

In a statement, correctional services commissioner Anne Kelly said the prison was closed and inmates “were successfully moved from the affected area to other secure federal correctional facilities.”

The prison has housed some of the nation’s most notorious criminals including several serial killers.

A local state of emergency was declared on Friday as wildfires menaced the town of Port-Cartier.

Hundreds of workers at the massive hydroelectric plant in Churchill Falls also remained displaced Sunday after fleeing advancing fires earlier this week.

The plant provides power to the province of Newfoundland, neighboring Quebec and other jurisdictions.

The fire “remains a threat to the community,” Newfoundland Premier Andrew Furey told a news conference, but it has been “largely contained” to the opposite shores of a river from the plant.

Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro boss Jennifer Williams said a skeleton crew remained behind to keep the generating plant working.