Officials struggling to keep track as evacuees flee blaze near Pikangikum First Nation

It's been a "chaotic" few days as officialstry to determine how many people have fled a northwestern Ontario community threatened by forest fire,according to Derek Fox, deputy grand chief of Nishnawbe Aski Nation, a group that represents northern First Nations.

Some 2,000 people have been air-lifted out of Pikangikum First Nation on a military cargo plane since thefire broke out nearby on May 29.

But Pikangikum is home to approximately 3,800 people, and is mainly accessedby air. Officials aren't surewhere the rest are, Fox said.

"I know that a lot of people have left that are not accounted for and I know that there's many in Winnipeg, " Fox told CBC News. "[We]want to ensure that everyone is out of the community."

Evacuees, especially those who "self-evacuated,"are being urged to register with officials, wherever they are.

"If there'speople in Winnipeg, or Timmins, or Kapuskasing, or Dryden, or Thunder Bay and all these small townships ... they need to registerso that [officials] can account for those self evacuees, those who have left on a boat," he explained.

Although the wind has helped direct the smoke away from the community since the weekend, Fox said the more than 3800 hectarefire is still not under control and therefore officials are not sure when residents will be able to return home.

"I'm sure that everyone is doing their part ... but it's just chaotic because everyone just left to a town that could take them," Fox said, adding that they "don't even know who the liaison" is in each of the host communities in Ontario.