Most evacuees can go back Tuesday

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This article was published 15/05/2016 (3743 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Cottagers and residents in Whiteshell Provincial Park and northwestern Ontario who were forced to flee because of a wildfire, were elated Sunday to learn most of them will be able to return to their properties this week.

“The majority of cottagers will be allowed to return, effective Tuesday,” said Marney Brown, incident commander of Kenora 18 Fire, the joint Manitoba-Ontario name for the blaze that forced the first mass evacuation in 100 years of this popular cottage country.

Fire officials said 65 per cent of the blaze is contained.

On Sunday, Manitoba and Ontario fire officials held the second meeting in three days at the Whiteshell Community Centre at Falcon Lake to update residents about the wildfire, which is east of Caddy Lake.

Most of the 150 cottage owners in attendance applauded the announcement. Those with properties at Caddy, West Hawk and Macara lakes on the southern and western perimeters of the fire, as well as Rice Lake on the northeast, will be allowed to return.

Residents of Ingolf, Ont., will also be able to return.

Those fire fronts are well-contained, officials said.

Property owners will be allowed access starting at 8 a.m. Tuesday. Officials say they must carry identification and proof of ownership to the property to be allowed entry.

“The big news for us, and this was a shot across the bow for us, is that we have to look at being fire smart in the future,” said Bill Benson, who has a year-round cottage at West Hawk Lake in Manitoba.

The fire taught him and others to clear away deadfall, which made the area a fire hazard.

Cottagers at Nora and Florence lakes will not be allowed to return.

“I personally feel we were the hardest hit in this… fire,” said Nora Lake cottager Dan Poersch.

“And we’ll be the last to return. We’re not really clear on what the status is in that area.”

On the Manitoba side, 35 ground crews were working to contain the blaze.

As of Saturday, travel and burning-permit restrictions in eastern Manitoba had been lifted. Local municipalities may still implement their own restrictions.

Highway 312 from one kilometre east of Highway 44 (Big Island turnoff) to the Ontario border remained closed Sunday. In Whiteshell park, the Hunt Lake, Mantario and McGillivray Falls hiking trails remained closed until conditions improve.

Cool weather conditions continued to help firefighters on the weekend, but the forecast for this week calls for warm weather and no precipitation.

The province said Saturday the fire northeast of Caddy Lake covered about 50 square kilometres.

Further north, in Nopiming Provincial Park, the fire at Beresford Lake was at about 750 square kilometres Sunday and officials considered it 60 per cent contained.

The province said fire crews were making “good progress” with suppression efforts.

Twenty firefighters from Nova Scotia helped with the battle and sprinklers continued to spray water on cottages in the area.

The mandatory evacuation of the Beresford cottage subdivision remained in effect while the campgrounds at Beresford and Wallace Lake remain closed.

There was no update on when an evacuation order covering a lodge and 61 cottages at Wallace Lake would be lifted.

Manitoba has had 58 wildfires in 2016. The average by this time of year is 87.

Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources is letting cottagers back to Tannis Lake as long as they have proof of identity and cottage ownership.

The forest fires along the Manitoba-Ontario border broke out around May 5.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca