Residents of eastern Canadian community menaced by wildfire can return home

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.

Many of them drove for hours in a slow procession, with about 3,000 staying temporarily in the 7,000-person town of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, the nearest community with requisite resources, about 500 kilometres (310 miles) away.

At first, only essential workers and their families could return, the provincial government said on Saturday, including people working with the local health centre, the municipal government, the grocery store and the mining company Rio Tinto.

The evacuation order was officially lifted for all residents at midday on Monday.

"We're breathing ... a big sigh of relief as the fire situation has come under control," Premier Andrew Furey told reporters on Saturday.

(Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny; Editing by Chris Reese)