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Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION
Nearly 1,000 evacuees flown out of northern Manitoba communities due to forest fires
Evacuees from northern communities affected by heavy forest fire smoke register with the Canadian Red Cross at the Brandon Municipal Airport on Monday afternoon. (BRUCE BUMSTEAD / BRANDON SUN)
More evacuees from the Island Lake Region were bound for Winnipeg as smoke from forest fires continued to force flights from the north Tuesday.
Manitoba Conservation reported there is a forest fire 16 kilometres south of the Island Lake airport but there are no plans Tuesday to use water bombers to fight it.
"With St. Theresa Point, 428 priority one people are already out of the community since Friday and we have two more plane loads coming out today," said Daren Mini, executive director of the Manitoba Association of Native Firefighters (MANFF).
Priority one people are the frail, chronically ill, seniors and newborns.
MANFF co-ordinates evacuations with aboriginal chiefs and council when forest fires, floods or other disasters threaten First Nations.
So far, the agency that co-ordinates First Nations, with federal and provincial government health and emergency measures officials, has flown 970 evacuees south since last week.
Some 655 are in Winnipeg hotels and another 315 people from Garden Hill are staying in Brandon. They include 116 from Red Sucker Lake and 111 from Wasagamack, in addition to the hundreds from Garden Hill and St. Theresa.
With the exception of the fire south of Island Lake, most of the smoke is coming from forest fires in Alberta and Saskatchewan to the west and from Ontario to the east. A provincial spokeswoman said Manitoba had fewer forest fires this summer than it did at the same time last summer.
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