Residents of eastern Canadian community menaced by wildfire can return home

FILE PHOTO: Smoke from an encroaching wildfire is seen over homes after an evacuation was ordered in the eastern Canadian community of Labrador City, Newfoundland, Canada July 12, 2024 in a drone photograph. REUTERS/Josh Bingle/File Photo

TORONTO (Reuters) - Thousands of people ordered from their homes in the face of a raging wildfire in a remote corner of eastern Canada can return home this week as the risk to their community diminished, authorities said over the weekend.

About 9,600 residents of Labrador City in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador had to evacuate the evening of July 12 after a wildfire burned out of control, expanding 16-fold in a day.