Thick smoke emanating from an out-of-control wildfire in northern Manitoba has forced at least 100 vulnerable residents to flee God’s Lake Narrows, the second community in the province to face evacuations due to wildfires this week.
The wildfire was ignited little over a week ago, after lightning struck south to God’s Lake Narrows, located about 540 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.
The fire has since grown just shy of 3,000 hectares, stretching closer to the community that now sits 37 kilometres away from it.
Provincial wildfire service director Earl Simmons says a “fairly thick” mass of smoke has been billowing from the fire, blanketing God’s Lake Narrows and pushing authorities to start a partial evacuation.
“The community felt that it would be prudent to get the people with health conditions, the respiratory and elderly out of the community and into an area where there wouldn’t be as much smoke,” Simmons said, adding some younger children were also evacuated.
Authorities have since relocated the evacuees from God’s Lake Narrows to Winnipeg. Simmons said 60 people came to the city on Wednesday and 40 more arrived Thursday.
While it is unclear when residents might be able to go back home, Simmons said the wildfire hasn’t spread as quickly as it did initially.
“It [the fire] originally grew, and then it ran out of fuel,” he said. “We really haven’t seen growth, with the weather being a limiting factor.”
Simmons said the type of trees surrounding the fire are also slowing the spread down, given that the canopy — he called it “the fuel of the fire” — has varieties that don’t burn as fast as others.
The province is setting up sprinklers in buildings within the vicinity of the blaze at risk of catching on fire. Among them is a BellMTS communication tower for the Island Lake area.
Manitoba Wildfire Service is currently responding to 51 active wildfires. But officials say that with lightning, thunderstorms and little to no precipitation in the forecast, more could ignite over the next few days.
Crews from Ontario have been deployed to assist with wildfire operations in Manitoba.
“The priority right now is to protect the community of Marcel Colomb First Nation and get that area secured,” Simmons said.
Fire threatening First Nation ‘laying right down’
The First Nation, located about 800 kilometres north of Winnipeg, was fully evaluated overnight on Wednesday after a sudden shift in the winds blew a wildfire directly at the First Nation.
The fire was out of control, stretching more than 824 hectares east of Lynn Lake by Thursday.
“At that time it was only four or five kilometers away from the community,” Simmons said. Hundreds were evacuated to Thompson, The Pas and Lynn Lake. The majority of them had been relocated to Winnipeg by Friday, he said.
“The wind did cause it to grow,” Simmons said. “But luckily, later yesterday and today, some rain has come through there, and the fire is laying right down and not growing in size.”
The fire was detected east of Lynn Lake earlier this week. By the time crews were flown in a helicopter to investigate, the blaze had already stretched over 100 hectares into the coniferous forest, engulfing black spruce.
“It was growing like crazy,” he said.
A fleet of water bombers was deployed and firefighters started to work around the perimeter of the blaze. Heavy equipment was used to install fire breaks to try and contain the blaze.
Simmons said the heavy smoke emanating from the fire blanketed crews, forcing them to halt operations temporarily at one point.
A shift in the winds mid-week brought the fire closer. But Simmons said winds have since taken a turn and are coming from the south, pushing the fire north.
“Today the winds have settled down up there, the fire is laying,” he said. “It’s still not any closer to the community.”