Leonard Mamakeesic says he learned a lot during this year’s wildfire season after his community was threatened by Ontario’s largest wildfire on record. The chief of Deer Lake First Nation, a remote Oji-Cree community about 600 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay, said his people stepped up to help one another during this summer’s evacuation, which saw more than 800 members flown to Toronto. “The weeks dragged on and on, and the months dragged on and started getting a little rough. People wanted to be home,” Mamakeesic said. “Toronto is a concrete jungle for people” from the community. The province’s wildfire season officially ended on Friday — a total of 643 wildfires were reported between April and October. Nearly 600,000 hectares — about 6,000 square kilometres — of land burned, compared to 480 fires and nearly 90,000 hectares, or 900 square kilometres, burned the year before. Ontario’s 10-year average is 712 fires and about 2,100 square kilometres burned.