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Travel restrictions announced in wake of wildfires

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 05/14/2012 10:04 AM | Comments: 0 | Last Modified: 05/14/2012 2:09 PM | Updates

Firefighters battle a grass fire just south of Highway 201 and east of Highway 302, between Vita and Caliento Sunday. (JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

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Marchand — Premier Greg Selinger announced a travel ban in Sandilands Provincial Park Monday as he prepared to board a helicopter for an aerial tour of forest fires that broke out on the weekend.

"We've supported a fire ban," the premier said in Marchand, where Manitoba Conservation crews have set up a staging camp and a command centre.

"It's a tinderbox situation out here for fires," said Selinger.

Meanwhile, the province called in reinforcements Monday. Two water bombers are due in from Minnesota late Monday and two more are flying in from Quebec Tuesday.

There is no word on when Badger residents evacuated overnight Monday may go home but fire crews did save the town of 60 from the flames.

Two forest fires doubled in size, despite heroic efforts to dowse them ths weekend. Seven thousand hectares of pine forest have gone up in flames.

Another forest fire of started west of Sandilands near the border town of Vita Monday.

The province is taking new precautions to prevent wildfires in eastern Manitoba. This afternoon, it introduced backcountry travel restrictions in the region effective immediately. Backcountry travel is now allowed by permit only.

The province also cancelled any burning permits that had been issued and said new burning permits would not be issued. It also decreed that all forest, mining and quarry operations will only be allowed to operate by permit.

Campfires, including those in provincial parks, will only be allowed from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. in approved fire pits only.

The area affected by the restrictions extends from the Manitoba-U.S. border in the south to the Bloodvein/Gammon River, including Bissett and Hollow Water, in the north. It also takes in the area east of La Broquerie, Richer and Brokenhead Ojibway First Nation and along the eastern edge of Lake Winnipeg to the to the Ontario boundary.

The affected area includes Whiteshell, Nopiming, Moose Lake, Wanipigow, Wallace Lake, Manigotagan River and south Atikaki provincial parks and the Northwest Angle and Sandilands provincial forests.

The province says the fire danger continues to be high in the southeast region due to low relative humidity, high temperatures and high winds.

The main concern is a large, approximately 5,000 hectare fire northeast of Carrick and southeast of Wood Ridge and Vita.

Provincial and municipal officials are focusing efforts to protect the community of Badger where residents in the southeastern community were rousted from their homes in the dead of night and ordered to leave as a raging wildfire burned dangerously close to the town.

A local municipal employee said volunteer firefighters evacuated all of the residents in the town at about 3 a.m. this morning, sending them to the community centre in Piney.

Badger is about 130 kilometres southeast of Winnipeg.

The worker didn’t know how many residents were evacuated because a number of people have seasonal homes in the town and she didn’t know how many of them were there at the time.

"But everyone got out OK."

She said the reeve and other officials from the RM of Piney were touring the area this morning.

The RM of Piney declared a state of emergency Sunday to give authorities the power to close roads in the wake of two days of wildfires that consumed more than 3,000 hectares of forest over the weekend in the Sandilands Provincial Park.

The municipal worker said the town was evacuated after the wind turned the fire towards the town.

"The wind keeps changing," she added.

The province said municipal crews worked the fire all day Sunday with the help of more than 30 provincial forest firefighters, three bulldozers six water bombers, three helicopters and a single-engine air tanker.

It said the main fire is located northeast of Carrick and southeast of Wood Ridge. The cause and origin of the blaze is still under investigation.

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Updated on Monday, May 14, 2012 at 2:09 PM CDT: Updates, bans announced.

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