A week after a now-massive wildfire broke out in northwestern Manitoba, residents and local officials are still grappling with the financial and emotional burdens caused by the forced evacuation of hundreds of people from their homes.
The fire, just north of Cranberry Portage and east of Flin Flon, was first detected last Thursday. High winds and extremely dry conditions caused it to grow rapidly, forcing the entire community of Cranberry Portage to evacuate Saturday night.
Manitoba Wildfire Service director Earl Simmons told CBC on Wednesday morning that he was “feeling good about the work the fire crews are doing” and was hopeful residents might be able to go back home as early as this weekend. However, the province said Wednesday afternoon there’s no estimated return date for the roughly 580 evacuees.
The fire was still about 1 ½ kilometres from Cranberry Portage as of Wednesday afternoon and about 31,600 hectares in size, or 316 square kilometres, according to the province’s latest fire bulletin.
George Brightnose, who fled Cranberry Portage, said he felt “blessed” to get to The Pas safely, but as a pensioner, he struggled to pay for a hotel room once he got there.
“How can you pay upfront when you don’t even have money?” Brightnose said. “That was a big issue for me.”
Pandora Cummine Furniss and her family were among the last few people to leave Cranberry Portage on Saturday, but she says that’s because local officials never told them they had to.
“If it hadn’t been for our neighbours and friends, we wouldn’t have known that there was an evacuation order,” she told CBC News Network on Wednesday.
“We didn’t have a clear message, and so others had heard at this concert, others had an RCMP member come to their door and tell them to leave, and others were told they had 20 minutes.”
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The rural municipality of Kelsey, which includes Cranberry Portage, has started posting information and resources for evacuees on Facebook. Cummine Furniss says getting that information was challenging in the “pretty crucial” 24 hours following the evacuation.
“I think there was a lot of unnecessary stress that people went through, and I think it could have been avoided, because there is a history of fire up in the north and the community has gone through it.”
Evacuees had to cover own expenses in 1st days
The province stepped in with financial support on Monday, said Lori Forbes, the municipal emergency co-ordinator for the region.
But many evacuees faced upfront costs for hotels and other necessities through the weekend.
“That has to come out of everyone’s pocket until the province kicks in, and so that cost on people for 72 hours is extreme,” Forbes said Tuesday.
“There are some people who just do not have that, and so we need to figure out a way to do that better … and quicker.”
She also said evacuees have been critical of the short notice they got to leave on Saturday.
Shelley Napier, an emergency consultant who spent more than three decades working with Manitoba’s Emergency Management Organization, says it’s not uncommon for the province to step in around the 72-hour mark to help during a natural disaster.
There are measures in place that determine when the province provides financial help in such a situation, but Napier says that doesn’t mean “the purse strings of the province open up” immediately after a community is ordered to evacuate.
“It’s not instantaneous, because there’s so many different departments that are involved and there’s so many different options that they have to consider,” she said.
Napier also says a wildfire’s swiftness and unpredictability can hamper planning efforts.
“Likely, the wind changed, or the situation changed, and a quick decision was made.”
Napier met countless Manitoba evacuees of fires, floods and train derailments through her work with the EMO. They face anguish, anxiety and uncertainty after being forced from their homes, she said.
But there are steps people can take to help, like making sure you have an emergency go kit prepared — a potentially life-saving step that Napier says many Manitobans don’t think of.
“We no longer have hazard seasons, we have year-round hazards, and we have to be more aware of what it is that we are facing and be prepared to take care of ourselves.”
More supports to be determined, Kinew says
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew toured the fire zone Tuesday, pledging the province’s support to fight the blaze and help displaced Manitobans.
The challenge is to ensure no evacuee gets left behind, he said.
“Just the amount of stress…. of uncertainty that they’ve been forced to live with through the past few days, the rest of us can only imagine,” he told CBC News Network in a Wednesday interview.
When asked whether his government is considering income supplements for evacuees, Kinew said the response is still in its early stages, with the province focused on immediate needs such as food, shelter and health care.
“As we get further into this response, that’s where we’re going to be standing up additional layers to this.”
Internet and cell service outages in Flin Flon affected local ATMs and Interac systems on Tuesday, prompting the province to open accounts at some stores so evacuees could buy necessities, he said.
He’s also heard from evacuees concerned about their food spoiling at home due to an earlier power outage, which has since been addressed.
“Our government’s going to have to continue to sort through these things, but the bottom line is that we’ll be there for people.”