Residents evacuate as fire threatens Snow Lake

WINNIPEG — Another wildfire-threatened town in northern Manitoba began a mandatory evacuation Friday, while a 140-kilometre-long blaze threatened multiple communities in two provinces and put evacuees on tenterhooks.

Snow Lake, home to about 1,100 people, ordered residents to get out before noon Saturday and head to an evacuation reception centre in Winnipeg if they need a place to stay.

“I put the sprinkler on my home, and locked the door and left,” resident Caroline Denby told the Free Press during her roughly seven-hour drive to Winnipeg. “I hope that we don’t lose the town. Everybody getting out is the main thing. I really trust our (fire) crew, and believe they’re really wonderful at what they do.”

Town officials started planning for a potential evacuation as early as about two weeks ago. A voluntary evacuation began Tuesday. Denby was ready to go when it became mandatory.

“We’re luckier than lots of other people because we’ve had time to pack up and think,” she said.

Some of Snow Lake’s evacuees are visitors who were forced to flee their homes in Flin Flon or other fire-threatened communities last month.

“Now they have to evacuate again,” said Denby, who has a place to stay in Winnipeg. “Those are the ones I feel bad for.”

Mandatory evacuation orders were in place for at least 27 communities, resulting in the displacement of more than 18,000 people mainly to the homes of family or friends, hotel rooms in Manitoba and southern Ontario, and shelters.

At least two flights were scheduled to transport more evacuees to Ontario Friday. Residents of Pimicikamak, Tataskweyak and Mathias Colomb Cree nations made the journey, said Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Inc., which represents northern First Nations.

The Canadian Armed Forces airlifted more than 3,800 evacuees. More than 170 CAF members were involved at the height of the since-completed operation.

The Manitoba Wildfire Service reported 28 active fires as one of the worst wildfire seasons in decades continued to unfold.

Eleven fires were out of control, including a blaze that the City of Flin Flon said was about 140 km long and five kilometre wide in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, after three fires merged.

The fire’s easternmost point was north of Snow Lake, but the blaze also extended some distance west of the town, based on the province’s latest wildfire map.

Firefighters in Flin Flon and Sherridon have been holding back flames for more than a week. The merged fire covered more than 307,000 hectares as of Friday.

“(Sherridon) is still surrounded by fire. They’re actively continuing to fight to keep our community alive,” said Deputy Mayor Sheryl Matheson, one of the community’s 60 evacuees, who are staying in hotel rooms in Dauphin.

Mental health supports are being provided to them.

“The reality that they’re not going home any time soon is kind of kicking in,” Matheson said.

She said this week’s transition of emergency support services from the province to the Canadian Red Cross was “kind of messy” due to gaps in communication.

Matheson was trying to get more information to ensure supports continue uninterrupted. She said evacuees, who are about 660 kilometres from home, registered for provincial emergency support services, and then re-registered with the Red Cross.

“There is a lot of stress here right now,” she said. “You would hope things would be getting better 12, 13 days in, and they seem to be getting worse.”

Eligible Manitobans who are under mandatory evacuation orders can now receive daily stipends of $34 (if aged 13 and older) and $27 (for children aged 12 and under).

In Flin Flon, crews were protecting the city’s southern flank as winds blew heavy smoke and fire toward that side of the community.

“The wind is not in a favourable direction. We’d like it to blow away from town, and it’s not doing that,” Mayor George Fontaine said.

A team of 260 personnel was in Flin Flon and Creighton to repel the blaze.

Premier Wab Kinew saluted firefighters, some of whom have been battling fires for weeks.

“Just amazing work happening across the board, and it’s happening because people are working together,” he said at an unrelated event.

Flin Flon evacuees Tim and Shawna Dubreuil are among the Manitobans who are refreshing social media and weather apps, or checking satellite maps that display fire activity to get any updates they can.

The Dubreuils have been getting news from friends who are fighting the fire, which has destroyed homes belonging to some of their relatives and friends in Saskatchewan.

“Being this far away from the situation, you kind of feel helpless,” Tim Dubreuil said. “You kind of stand by and wait (for information). We’re trying to do as much as we can to monitor what’s going on without being on the ground.”

His biggest concern is the safety of people who remain in fire-threatened communities.

“We don’t want to see anyone injured,” Dubreuil said. “I’m praying that rain hits and keeps coming to put out some of this fire and give our firefighters a helping hand because they’re exhausted.”

The couple, who run an airbrushing company called Dirtbag Kustoms, could see flames from their back door when a mandatory evacuation began May 28 in Flin Flon, which is home to about 5,000 people.

Wildfire scenes are among Tim Dubreuil’s recent paintings. One painting depicts a water bomber attacking the Flin Flon-area blaze, based on a video that a friend sent to him.

The Dubreuils are staying at a friend’s property in Arran, Sask. Tim Dubreuil hailed those who’ve offered places to stay or other forms of help to evacuees.

“The people of the province have been exceptional,” he said.

Municipal firefighters from across Manitoba have joined the effort. Morris’ volunteer fire chief, Trevor Thiessen, and volunteer firefighter Shelby Fehr made a roughly 15-hour drive to Lynn Lake in a pumper truck May 29.

They returned Monday, a day after flames reaching about 121 metres in height infiltrated the town. Thiessen and Fehr initially staged outside a hospital while a wall of smoke grew closer and the sky became dark.

“At 3 p.m., it felt like it was night. Then, you could see the flames licking the tops of trees, and then it was in town,” Thiessen said.

The pair battled about a dozen fires, including one near a school, into the early hours of Monday.

“It’s hard to remember it all because it was running from fire to fire,” Thiessen said. “Until you experience it, it’s really hard to appreciate the urgency and the direness of it.”

A statement by the Town of Lynn Lake said a crew of first responders saved the hospital and other critical buildings.

» Winnipeg Free Press