Wildfires close in while northern Manitoba communities evacuate

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A massive evacuation effort continued Thursday in northern Manitoba, as officials worked to get the more than 2,500 residents out of harm’s way as a wildfire closed in.

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An approximately 5,700-hectare wildfire continued to burn Thursday in northern Manitoba near the Bunibonibee Cree Nation, also commonly referred to as Oxford House, coming as close as 10 kilometres by Wednesday evening.

Earl Simmons, the Director of Manitoba’s Wildfire Service, said the province began monitoring the wildfire on Tuesday after it ignited suddenly, quickly grew out of control and officials realized there was cause for concern.

“On Tuesday in the afternoon we had a fire that blew up,” Simmons said. “And we do a bunch of modelling and look at the weather conditions and the type of fuel and type of trees that are there, and it’s just continuous Black Spruce trees right up to the community, and that stuff is explosive,” Simmons said.

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“So we were quite concerned, and I made a call to the federal government and to the community and said, ‘this fire is out of control, we don’t have the ability to stop it, so you need to look at the option of evacuating.’”

According to Simmons, federal officials and BCN leadership officially called for an evacuation of the entire community on Tuesday, and evacuations by air of the remote fly-in community began on Wednesday morning, beginning with seniors and those with health issues or disabilities.

“It’s a very remote community and it’s a fly-in community of 2,700 people, so we decided it was time to engage with the federal government to utilize the military and to get people out of there,” Simmons said.

Simmons added that since the evacuation was called, the federal government has sent as many as six military CC-130 Hercules planes to help get people out, and he expects all community members to be evacuated no later than Friday morning.

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“The first priority is to make sure the people are safe, and then the next priority is to protect the community,” he said.

Simmons said officials began putting up sprinklers on the south end of the community, the area closest to the fire, on Tuesday.

“It soaks everything down and so the structures have a chance of survival,” he said.

Fire crews continued to battle the blaze on Thursday, and Simmons said rain in the area Thursday morning could help crews keep the fire away from BCN.

He added, however, that officials are concerned about hot and dry weather that is forecast for the area over the weekend, and could make the work of fire crews “very, very challenging” in the coming days.

The fire was one of 71 wildfires Simmons said crews were fighting in Manitoba as of Thursday morning, and he said resources have been stretched thin in recent weeks, forcing officials to call in fire crews from Ontario and the U.S.

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Simmons blames lightning strikes for many of the fires burning in Manitoba, but added some have been deliberately set, as he said was the case for six wildfires that started on Wednesday. Simmons does not believe the fire near BCN was set deliberately.

“We have 71 fires on the go across the province and half a dozen were human-caused and deliberately set just yesterday, and that’s very frustrating because those are preventable, and that forces us to continue stretching our resources and to continue calling people in to help,” he said.

“So we’re really asking people to be careful and think about what they are doing.”

In an email, a spokesperson for the Canadian Red Cross said they are coordinating evacuation plans for those being evacuated to Winnipeg and Brandon and added there are also partial evacuations happening this week in the Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation and Tataskweyak Cree Nation, as residents with certain health issues are being evacuated because of wildfire smoke.

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The province warned in a Thursday fire bulletin that those who remain in the area should take steps to avoid smoke inhalation, including limiting outdoor activities, staying indoors with windows and doors closed, setting air conditioning units in homes and vehicles to recirculate to avoid drawing smoke in and drinking plenty of water.

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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