Hundreds of Little Grand Rapids wildfire evacuees expected to go home next week, chief says

Hundreds of people who were forced from their eastern Manitoba First Nations community by wildfires months ago are expected to finally be able to go home early next week.

Little Grand Rapids Chief Raymond Keeper says most of the community members who have been staying in eight Winnipeg hotels since July will likely be able to fly home Monday, while those staying in four other hotels are expected to be able to follow the next day.

"I'm just happy that they will be returning. Some people have been begging to go home and I've been trying to bear with them and telling them, 'It's not long,'" he told CBC News on Saturday.

"I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up until I got the final word."

The community was evacuated due to wildfires in July.

While residents of a number of other First Nations were able to return home earlier in the summer, Little Grand Rapids community members couldn't go home even after the threat from the fires had passed, because of damage to roughly 100 hydro poles providing power to the area.

The work of replacing the fire-damaged poles was made challenging by the lack of road access — meaning much of it must be done by helicopter — and the difficulty of setting poles in rocky Canadian Shield terrain, Manitoba Hydro previously told CBC. Weather conditions also caused delays.